Raised a Killer
by ironic-memes
Summary: AU Naruto is kidnapped the night of the Kyuubi attack, but the Kyuubi is not sealed in him, but in his twin sister. Both Minato and Kushina are alive and Hidan gets ahold of the newborn Naruto and trains him. Spin-off of DiscipleOfAnime's 'Raised a Criminal'.
1. Beginning of The End

**Alright guys I'm gonna get straight to the point on this. This is a spin-off of Raised a Criminal. Many of you may have read the story a few years back. It's pretty much cancelled. So, I figured I'd take a crack at it but with my own twist. It being such a good story and all. Anyways you guys enjoy!**

* 8 minutes outside Konohagakure *

Two ninjas were currently running along a battle torn land. While the fighting had recently stopped. The chaos of the tragic event was still ongoing. With fires still burning brightly in the night. Said ninja were making a hasty escape after they accomplished their mission in Konoha. If all went according to plan this would be a big payday for the both of them. Both ninjas had on a headband that had three diagonal lines as a symbol for their ninja village, Yugakure. The two men wore slim burgundy flak jackets, white pants, and carried retractable weapons on their hips.

One of the men, who had slick blue hair, a goatee on his face, and had his headband wrapped around his left arm shouted, "Make sure you don't lose the package! We got a lot of money and lives riding on this!" The second man had long black hair tied into a ponytail with his headband tied around his neck, "I know...!" the man said annoyed. 'I'm not a kami damned child.' he thought."Just worry about running away from those damn leaf ninjas!"

The two men kept running relentlessly, trying to put as much distance between them and Konoha as possible. After a bit the man with the goatee slowed down till he was directly behind his teammate. Opening up a pack he had on his back. He looked inside to make sure their package was intact, "I can't believe we are getting paid this much money to capture this. What do think Akira?"

The black haired man named Akira answered his teammate, "It's not surprising that the Tsuchikage would want this little bastard. Considering the clan he's from and who his parents are, the price on him is right. Speaking of Tsuchikage, how much longer until we reach the checkpoint, Yadomaru?"

Yadomaru zipped the pack back up and told Akira, "We're suppose to meet a contact that will tell us where the Iwa nins will be and then there's supposed to be a trade off. The town is called Moulin and we need to get there by tomorrow morning, so let's high-tail it and get rich." Akira agreed and they ran off faster than they were previously.

* The Next Day: Moulin Town *

It was about eight o'clock in the morning when they first caught sight of the town. They hadn't even rested once since they left Konoha and were exhausted. "This is a pain in the ass, thank Kami it'll set us for life." said Yadomaru. "Ya, it's a lot of cash for some kid. And with the economic mess that Iwa is in…" replied Akira. "Nah, Just imagine what Iwa could do with the kid? He could become a very valuable asset to Iwa's already impressive arsenal."

They were told to meet their contact at a hotel named the First Light. The two ninja henged into travelers and made their way to the hotel. Once they arrived to their destination, they noticed the place was really beat up. No doubt this wasn't a place you stayed with the family for vacation. This was for drugs, whores, or anything else illegal. "It freaking reeks here." said Akira. "welcome to the ghetto of Moulin. First stop sketchy hotel." Yadomaru replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Alright what room is he in again Akira?"

Akira dug around in his pouch for a moment and then pulled out a slip of paper. "hmm...room number 66." he said. "66...66..ah there it is." The door was the last on the left. Both men walked towards it and stopped in front of the door. Yadomaru lifted his hand and knocked on the door 3 times then waited. "...who it it…" replied a voice on the other side. "May the glory of Iwa stand tall." Answered akira.

"About fucking time you guys arrived! I was beginning to think you dumbasses died or something." The voice yelled on the other end before the door shot open. Revealing a man with silver hair that was brushed back, red shinobi pants, black ninja sandals, and a grey sash around his waist. "H-Hidan…" said Akira. "We heard you were killed." said Yadomaru, his voice giving away his obvious fear.

The man named Hidan looked at both men for a couple of seconds before bursting out in laughter. HAHAHA, me... dead? That's the funniest shit I've heard in awhile. I thought the Tsuchikage hired shinobi, not a couple of clowns. Haha, like anyone in that fucking shit excuse for a village could kill me." Hidan walked off towards a old worn out table in the center. He turned around to see both men were still outside, fear plastered across their faces. "well come the fuck on then ya pussies." Hidan said aggravated. Both men hesitantly stepped in and closed the door. Yadomaru quickly pulled off his pack and handed it to Hidan.  
He quickly snatched the pack off the table and unzipped it looking into it seeing something he wouldn't have guessed was the package. "This is the fuckin' package?"

Yadomaru answered, "It is. The Tsuchikage told us everything we needed about what we were to obtain. I'm just glad that the village was already under attack by the Kyuubi, we had used the distraction of the attack to sneak into the village and get it." "Kyuubi...haven't heard of him. He probably ain't worth a shit then." Hidan said as he reached his hand into the pack and pulled out a blanket that was wrapping something else up. He moved the blankets aside and saw the face of, a red haired baby that was sleeping peacefully.

Akira got Hidan's attention and said, "You got the boy now give us the cash. Me and my partner would like to get on our way." Hidan wrapped the baby back up in the blanket and placed him back into the pack gently. He placed the pack off to the side and told the two, "The Tsuchikage told me that should you not die and fail, I am to give you your reward." Hidan reached under the table and pulled out a metal case and placed it on the table. He opened the case and said, "Here is your reward, 50 million ryo."

Yadomaru eyes shined a little, he'd never seen so much money in his life! He reached ahead to make sure it was the right amount, but Hidan slammed the case shut on the man's fingers with enough force that he severed them from his hand. Akira screamed but before he could react, Hidan leapt over the table and punched him in the face making the man's head slam against the wall knocking him out. The nuke nin grabbed Yadomaru by the back of his neck and slammed his head into the table.

Yadomaru shouted, "W-What the fuck is wrong with you!" The man simply answered, "You interrupted my prayer asshole. I'll just tell that dick-bag Tsuchikage Konoha's ANBU unit got to ya. As long as he got his package the man shouldn't give a damn." The man widened his eyes in horror and Hidan pulled his head off the table only to snap his neck quickly. He snatched the retractable weapon from the dead man and drove it into Akira's skull keeping the man pinned to the wall.

Hidan wiped the blood off of his hands using a piece of cloth from one of the dead ninjas "piece of shit got me dirty after I just showered." Once he finished cleaning up he began picking up the money that spilled out of the case. 'Can't let all this money go to waste, eh? Hehe, when I get done dropping that kid off I'm getting wasted as all hell.' After he picked up the money he heard a crying sound. He looked around the table and saw that the pack was moving and he knew the baby was awake now, no doubt from all the noise he made when he killed the men. Hidan grabbed the pack and opened it up. He needed to shut the fucking kid up if he was to go; as it wouldn't do good if a Konoha ANBU ninja heard the crying and decided to check it out. Looking inside he saw the baby crying his eyes out. He picked the kid up as if it were a foreign object and held the baby with his arms outstretched, not sure what to do next.

All his years as a ninja and a devout Jashinist didn't prepare him to take care of a baby. He had to move. If the baby continued to cry surely someone would hear it and would want to see what happened. And would see the bodies. He placed the baby back into the pack despite the constant crying and grabbing the metal case full of money and his tri-bladed scythe. He opened up the door to his room and ran out and began to look for the nearest convenience store.

After 10 minutes of running around he finally spotted one. With scythe in hand he ran into that building and spotted the cashier. He was a short elderly man wearing coke-bottle glasses. Pointing his weapon at the man Hidan shouted "Yo, old fart you got any milk in here?" The frightened elderly man pointed down a isle to Hidan's left. Acting quickly Hidan grabbed the bottle of milk and ran back out the door yelling "Thanks old man!"

* Twenty Minutes Later *

Hidan was far outside the town of Moulin and took refuge in a cave. He had ripped a large cloth off of a traveler on the way there without them noticing and poured some of the milk onto it, soaking it completely. He placed the cloth in the baby's mouth letting the baby suck out the milk from the cloth, when the baby opened his eyes Hidan saw cerulean blue eyes that reminded him of someone. But, but couldn't quite think of who. What business did the tsuchikage have with this kid? He got curious and unraveled the baby and looked inside his diaper and said, "So you're a boy." The little baby boy stopped sucking and winced, making a strange face. "Oi, what's wrong with ya?"

Not knowing what to except what he saw and heard about over the years he sat the baby up on his knee and began to pat his back until the baby made a burping noise. Then he wrapped him back up and said, "Listen ya little shit I'm only taking care of you until I get you to the Tsuchikage, don't take this the wrong way, I can't have you dying on me." He placed the baby back into his pack and picked up the money case as he set off to began his journey to Iwagakure. The only bad thing was that the Tsuchikage had set up his meeting with the kidnappers in a town that was far east of Fire Country, which meant he had to travel across the Land of Fire and across Takigakure territory to Iwagakure to collect his reward.

He felt the baby move in the pack and tried his best to ignore it; up until he began to cry. "Jashin fuck me dead…" said the large scythe wielding man. His short temper already getting to him.

* A Day after the Kyuubi attack: Nightfall: Konoha *

In Konoha, at the base of the mountain stood a tower belonging to the village's leader, a man called the 'Hokage'. The village beyond it was in desperate need of repairs after a giant fox demon called the Kyuubi attacked. Causing massive earthquakes that destroyed a good deal of the village and killing many of Konoha's shinobi. Currently residing in the tower was a young man with spiky blonde hair. His hands buried in his face as he sat at a desk in the top floor of the tower. He wore standard jounin attire, a green flak jacket and a blue long sleeve ninja shirt with blue ninja pants. He was also wearing a white cloak that went over his attire with red flames along the bottom. This man looked to have seen better days and his eyes showed that he had been doing a lot of crying.

The door to his office swung open revealing a young boy wearing a porcelain animal mask, standard uniforms consisting of black and gray armor, metal arm guards, and a signature spiral tattoo on his left shoulder. Though the animal mask of a dog covered his face, one could still see his distinct gray hair that was defying gravity as it pointed from the left side of his head.

The man politely bowed in front of the Hokage's desk saying, "Still no sign of him Hokage-sama. We don't even know where to start off. Most of the land and the village itself is greatly damaged and it's near impossible to find out what direction the kidnappers might have gone." The man didn't even respond and seemed to be a statue. The boy moved a little closer saying, "Sensei?"

The Hokage took his hands away from his face revealing cerulean blue eyes, tear marks making their way down his cheek. He looked at the body asking, "Kakashi… You're sure you didn't find anything?" The young ninja named Kakashi shook his head, "No sensei, nothing at all. All the available ANBU tracked looking for your son, but are coming up empty handed."

The young kage leaned back in his chair and said, "Kushina is tearing herself apart about this and no matter what I do she seems to get worse." Kakashi didn't know what to say. After everything that's happened he was at a loss for words. Minato said again, "Nothing went how it was suppose to. Menma wanted siblings and he finally got not one, but two. He was even happier than both Kushina and me when he found out that Kushina was having twins."

Kakashi took his mask off, showing his headband that had a leaf on it. The headband was slanted to cover his left eye. He placed his mask on the desk saying, "With all due respect nothing always goes as planned, not even for a kage. We are ninjas after all and nothing is set in stone for us." Before the Hokage could respond his door opened up and walking through it was a tall man with long spiky white hair, clad a long red vest, a green gi, a net shirt underneath that, red sandals, and a large scroll on his back.

When the man saw who it was he stood up asking, "Jiraiya-sensei! Did you find out anything!" The older man named Jiraiya shook his head, "Sorry Minato I didn't, but I've only been to a few villages outlying Konoha a good distance away and found nothing. Whoever kidnapped your son may have gone off farther to avoid being seen, but to what village or town is unknown. Sorry I couldn't find anything."

The Hokage named Minato fell back into his chair, cursing under his breath. Jiraiya looked at Kakashi and then to his student walking over to him telling him, "Minato listen, I don't want to say this, but if your kid was kidnapped by one of your enemies, well then his chance of survival is zero." Minato looked up at his sensei and couldn't believe what he just said. Jiraiya saw his eyes and continued, "Minato you have to live in the reality of the world. Even if it wasn't one of your enemies and just a random kidnapper, then that doesn't make it any better."

Kakashi walked up to his sensei as well, "He's right sensei. As much as the village would like to see the brighter side that we will find Naruto, they need to understand that that's not how the world works." Minato refused to believe any of what they were saying, but before he could say anything Jiraiya told him, "Listen Minato, you have a beautiful wife that needs you, your older boy Menma needs you, and your daughter Haru will need you the most. She has the Kyuubi sealed inside of her and she will need you to guide her and teach her how to control that power."

Jiraiya's words sunk in a little and watched as he leaned back into his seat. Jiraiya ran his hand through his spiky hair saying, "I suggest you let me take over as temporary page until you can get a handle on everything. Go home and rest… your family needs you." Minato stood up silently and walked out of the room, leaving the two ninjas in his office.

* Hokage Mansion *

Minato walked to the most secure place in the village, the Hokage's mansion. It was a two story home with a large front and back yard and a very big training ground. He stopped in front of the huge gate and lazily opened the door, walking across the path to his home. Looking ahead he saw a lot of toads large, small, and some giant ones taller than himself. Each toad was croaking a sad melody and their stone eyes watched him walk into his home, he dragged his feet across the ground and up the stairs slowly. After he got up the stairs he stopped in front of a door with two names hanging on the door that read 'Haru & Naruto's Room'.

He opened the door up and saw half the room was painted blue and the other half was painted pink. The room had two cribs, two chairs, and one changing table that was on the farthest wall. Minato noticed that both cribs were empty and he left the room closing the door behind him. He walked down the hall quietly stopping outside the master bedroom.

He moved to open the door, but it opened by itself revealing a blonde haired woman who looked to be in her thirties with fair skin, brown eyes, and a small violet diamond shaped object on her forehead. Except for her bangs, which are parted in the middle and fall down the sides of her face, she has long blonde hair that was tied into two ponytails using bands in the same color as the seal on her forehead. She was wearing a grass-green robe with the kanji for gamble written in black on the back, inside a red circle. Underneath she wore khaki, kimono-style blouse with no sleeves, held closed by a broad, dark bluish-grey obi that matches her trousers. Her blouse was cut quite low, revealing her sizable cleavage. And on her feet she wore open-toed sandals with low heels and nail polish in the same color as her trousers and obi on both her nails.

The woman looked saddened and said, "She needs you right now gaki." Minato nodded and said, "Thank you Tsunade-oba, I'll handle it from here." The woman Tsunade moved to the side letting him through and she closed the door behind him. Minato walked into his dark room with the only light coming from the moon's rays outside his window. He looked at his kingsized bed and saw his wife sitting upon it. Their oldest son had his head on her lap and she had her baby girl in her arms rocking her back and forth humming a soothing melody with a few sobs coming out of her mouth every now and then.

Minato walked over to the bed, letting his cloak and flak jacket he had on fall to the floor. He sat on the bed and faced his wife, reaching out to move a few strands of her long red hair from her face and looking into her dark violet eyes. She looked up and saw Minato with a concerned look on his face. He asked his wife, "How are you?"

His wife simply said, "I want my son… I want my Naruto… Where is he?" Minato let his hand fall and he replied, "Kushina you need to rest." Kushina shook her head and said, "I don't need rest I need my son… Where is he?"

Minato winced as she asked that and had no choice, "Kushina-chan, they couldn't find any trace of where the kidnappers could've gone. With the Kyuubi attack every shred of potential evidence might have been wiped away." He looked at the tiny baby in her arms and noted her appearance. The small baby girl had blonde hair and three whisker birthmarks on each cheek, he pulled the blanket off of her looking at the seal on her belly.

His wife held the baby closer to her chest letting a few tears slide down her cheek. Minato got up and sat right next to her, pulling her into a hug, rubbing her head to try and soothe her. Menma woke up at that point and sat up looking at his parents, he saw how sad they were asking his dad, "Dad? Did they find Naruto yet?" Minato looked at his son and pulled him into the hug as well, "No my son they didn't find him yet… I don't think they will either…"

Menma hugged his dad back and he could hear a sobbing sound coming from his father, but couldn't look up. He said to his parents, "Mom, Dad… When I get older I'm gonna find Naruto, I promise I will." Minato smiled and he rubbed the top of his son's hair telling him, "Even if they don't find him, we shouldn't give up hope that he's out there somewhere; and if you say you'll find him, then you'll find him."

Kushina heard what her oldest son said and felt more relieved by his words. She tried to hum the melody she was doing before to keep her baby Haru asleep. They all laid back down believing that their baby Naruto was still alive somewhere.

* Three Days Later: Land of Earth *

Hidan was in no hurry to get to Iwagakure as he was sure the Tsuchikage wouldn't care if it was relatively soon. He stopped at a small restaurant for travelers and he took a seat. Ordering his food, he took the baby out of the pack and pulled out the bottle filled with milk he got awhile back. If he wanted the reward for this mission then he needed to make sure the baby was well taken care of until he got to Iwagakure. One of the waitresses came over giving him a bowl of curry he ordered and saw the small baby in his arms commenting on how cute the baby was, "Oh he's soooooo cute! What's the little one's name?"

He stopped feeding the baby for a moment and handed the baby to her asking, "Hold that' little shit for a moment." The girl was confused but took the baby and watched as he turned his back to her and began to eat. She sat down and unraveled the baby from his blanket and inspected him finding a band on his little ankle. She said out loud, "So your name is Naruto Namikaze is it? That's a cute name."

At that moment Hidan froze and put his bowl down and quickly turned to the woman taking the baby, he quickly pulled out some money and slammed it on the table before taking his leave. He was in such a hurry that he left his pack and a few other things back at the restaurant. He began to run, all the while thinking, 'That fucking idiot! He had those two pussy ninjas kidnap the Yondaime Hokage and Red Hot Habanero's son! How did I not see it, the blue eyes, dark red hair and now that fucking name!' Hidan picked up the pace running even more quickly. He glanced down at the baby and saw that his eyes were open and staring right at him still giggling.

He said to the baby, "Oi! Don't give me that look! I have to get your little ass to Iwa now!" Naruto began to giggle and held his arms out to Hidan, but the ninja tried to ignore him and kept running, wanting to get this over with now.

* Iwagakure *

The rocky mountain ranges that surround the village and country make it a natural stronghold. The village profits from this advantageous position and is proud of its strong defenses. The village itself sits among a mountain range consisting of small narrow waterfalls, made of buildings composed of rock and stone, shaped from large, elevated formations of rock into tower-like structures. Many of its buildings sit on cliffs and are connected by a network of bridges. The Tsuchikage's palace seems to be the tallest structure with a cone shaped roof.

Though for Hidan that made it more difficult as getting through these mountains was no cake walk. He reached up and took off the headband around his neck and buried it, reaching into his ninja pouch he took out a scroll that had the Iwa symbol on it, two rocks with the smaller rock in front of the bigger rock. Setting his scythe on the ground where his headband plate was he kept the baby cradled in his arm and slowly walked to the entrance of the village.

When he got close to the gate he found himself surrounded by ten Iwa ninjas. One of the Iwa nins asked, "What business do you have here stranger?" Hidan had Naruto cradled in his right arm and used his left hand to hold out the scroll to the ninja. The man carefully took hold of the scroll. Unraveling it, he read its contents and then closed it up. He told Hidan, "This way."

Hidan followed the man across a bridge to the Tsuchikage's tower. They entered the tower and came to a stop at what he assumed was the Tsuchikage's door, the Iwa nin knocked on the door and heard a deep voice say, "Come in, come in." The ninja pushed the doors aside and walked in with Hidan following suit. Hidan noticed two other men in the room that took their leave when his group entered. He saw that both had strong chakra signatures and noted each of them.

The first was a older man wearing a large headpiece consisting of a three pointed crown-like ridge, bearing both his Iwagakure forehead protector and ring, along with a prominent black piece of armor running across his cheeks and the bridge of his nose. Despite his advanced age, his hair was a solid red color.

The second was a very tall man that was heavily armored with a furnace on the back that emitted what looks to be steam. His armor extends all the way to the bottom half of his face, covering it completely. Aside from his red armor, he also wears a red kasa (conical straw hat) that seemed to be composed of metal. Over his armor he wore a black gi with the sleeves torn off.

Hidan looked at the desk and saw a very short man the size of a child. His facial features included a triangular beard and a mustache with angular corners. He had a big red nose and thick eyebrows. The top of his head was completely bald, although he had some white hair at the back and sides of his head, the back of which is tied with a yellow ribbon into a ponytail. 'Hehe, fucking old man-baby. your power may have grown but not your body.'

The old man told the three Iwa nins in the room, "You may take your leave." All three men nodded and walked out. However the Tsuchikage told the two other ninjas, "Roshi, Han." Both men stopped at the door and looked at the Tsuchikage.

The old kage told them, "Remember who you serve." Both men nodded and left the room closing the door behind them. Hidan saw out of the corner of his eye an Iwa ANBU ninja came out of the wall using a jutsu the Iwa nins are famous for. Hidan handed the kid over to the ANBU and he took the baby who began to cry the moment he left Hidan's arms, over to the Tsuchikage.

The ANBU ninja placed the baby on the kage's desk and moved away as the Tsuchikage investigated the baby, checking him over twice to be sure and then even a third time. After he was done he sighed saying to Hidan, "Tell me that you have a powerful genjutsu over this baby and that you can dispel it right now." Hidan didn't understand asking, "What the fuck are you talking about old man?" The Tsuchikage grabbed the baby by the blanket he was wrapped up in and tossed him at Hidan.

Hidan reacted by instinct and grabbed the baby. Despite being thrown the baby stopped crying and started to smile when he was with Hidan. The Tsuchikage said in a low tone, "I paid fifty million ryo to have the baby of the Yondaime Hokage brought to me, the baby that has the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox sealed in it. Do you know how difficult it was to get information like that? Do you know how much careful planning it took to make sure that the package containing the Kyuubi would be delivered to me? That's what I wanted and yet this baby has neither the seal on his body nor any characteristics that he has the beast in him."

Hidan raised his voice as well arguing back, "My job was to bring the baby to you, it was those two retarded ninjas you hired who fucked you. Don't make this like I failed the mission ya old bastard." The Tsuchikage Onoki shook his head in anger telling Hidan, "I cannot let this go unpunished. I will kill you and the baby of that bastard as well. I can't have you going around letting rumors spread that I authorized the mission to kidnap the Yondaime's baby. That would turn out very, very bad for me."

Onoki held his hand up to his ANBU saying, "Kill him." The ANBU ninja hoped into action quickly, charging at Hidan. The nuke-nin however wasn't intimidated and pulled out a kunai with several explosive tags attached to it. "Eat this ya old fucker!" The next thing the village heard was a loud explosion that came from their kage's tower.

Laughing like a manic Hidan jumped out of the building at blinding speed and kept running, going faster than he'd ever run before, still carrying the baby. He was lucky he avoided any ninjas and ran to where he left his weapons. He found the spot where he left everything and jetted off once he got what was absolutely necessary. He had to leave Iwa immediately. Hidan picked up the pass. Putting as much distance between him and Iwa as possible.

* Two Hours Later: Takigakure *

Hidan made it back to Taki territory without stopping and took a moment to rest after his ordeal with the Tsuchikage. He set Naruto down on the ground, still wrapped in his blanket, as he said to himself, "I'm royally fucked… The old midget is after me, my village wants me dead, I have the son of the Yondaime Hokage with me… Fuck… I can't keep this little shit with me." He looked around and made a kind of small boat out of twigs and some leaves. He placed the boat next to a stream with the baby on it.

He lifted up the boat and baby and held it in the stream ready to send the baby off. Little Naruto opened his eyes and looked into Hidan's violet eyes almost as if pleading him not to do it. Hidan began to have a struggle within himself saying, "If those asshole's connect me with your kidnapping then Konoha will be after me quick… but what if they catch me without you? Not even the great jashin-sama could hide me." After he thought over a few different scenarios he grabbed Naruto and said, "You're a pain in my ass, but I could use you. Having a well trained Uzumaki by my side could prove to be beneficial…"

He got up and walked away. He looked at the baby cradled in his arm and watched in amusement as the baby kept giggling and smiling, Hidan kept walking through a forest saying, "The moment your little ass starts to walk Naruto you'll begin your training. And whether you like it or not...it'll be pure hell." Hidan moved through the forest, taking on a student he intends to protect himself. Unless Jashin-sama demanded otherwise.


	2. When we were young

**Alright guys here's the second chapter. As I'm sure tthose who are familiar with 'Raised a Criminal' that these earlier chapters have a lot in common. The only changes I'm making at the moment are for Hidan and Naruto. Menma and Haru's story is pretty much the same. For the time being anyways. Mine branches off completely eventually. Anyways enjoy!**

 **Edited 9/22/16 for grammar issues**

* * *

* Eight Years Later: Land of Tea *

The streets were paved in bright colors and everyone was out having fun for the festival. Kids played in the streets, wearing plastic ANBU masks. Countless carnival stalls were open with prizes of all shapes and sizes to entice people to come and play. Yes everyone was having fun at the festival, everyone except two people walking through the crowd, completely disinterested in the festival that was going on around them.

One was very short, 4'2'' the average height for a child his age, while the other was a taller man who stood at 5'8''. The taller man was wearing black shinobi pants, a leather jacket he left open, a silver pendant around his neck along with his slashed headband. On his shoulder rested a huge tri-bladed scythe.

The child however wore a plain white t-shirt, black shinobi pants, and also sported a silver pendant, along with black shinobi sandals to finish him off. The child's eyes were a cerulean blue, but the man had violet eyes .

The taller man told his younger companion, "Yo, squirt you remember what you're suppose to do right?"  
The boy nodded in response looking at the taller man, "Don't worry tou-san I remember." Naruto stopped and waited as his dad continued walking forward.

Hidan walked down an alleyway to a door that lead to a brothel. Once inside he saw that this place was more of an underground cave than a building, unlike the ones famous in other countries. He was greeted by a woman wearing a blue kimono that showed off her massive cleavage, obviously standing there to warm up new customers. "Hello there master. What can I interest you in?" She asked breathily. Hidan Looked at the woman's cleavage for a few seconds before forcing his eyes away. 'Business first, fun later.' Hidan reminded himself. Depending on how everything went down perhaps he'd come down to pay her a visit.

But Hidan asked the woman, "Has a fat guy happen to come in here? He's a good buddy of mine and I have important message for him."

The woman sighed that he wasn't there for a good time, but showed him through a few hallways. Hidan could hear pants, moans, and screams coming from many of the closed doors, but ignored them completely. Soon they reached room '21'. She held her hand to the door saying, "He's in here." Hidan immediately looked at her and widened his eyes. She inhaled once sharply before passing out under his genjutsu. He caught her and placed her sitting up on the wall. 'Sorry big titted woman, but duty calls.' He turned his attention back to the door. He could hear a few screams coming from in the room, but he kicked a hole through the door big enough for him to stick his face through. "Here's Hidan!" he yelled into the room.

The occupants of the room froze when a chunk of the door flew past. The man got off from on top of the woman he paid and tried to get dressed, cursing and screaming at Hidan all the while. Hidan ignored all his rants and screams, and gave a little laugh at the scene unfolding in front of him. Finally the man was able to get a shirt and his pants on asking, "Who the fuck are you!"  
Hidan moved a few steps toward him and drew his scythe from his back as he said, "Your death asshole!" Kaijiro immediately grabbed the prostitute and tossed her at him. Hidan didn't give a shit and kicked the woman, knocking her into the wall, unconscious.

Kaijiro was already running from the room, thinking he got a good head start from his hit man. But that's what Hidan allowed. Hidan left the room and began walking, following leisurely behind the man. Hidan gave a large bloodthirsty smile and thought 'like you could ever outrun me fatass.' Kaijiro busted through a door leading into the building, knocking a kid over as he ran into the alleyway. He took off down the alley, running through so many different twists and turns that he lost track of where he was. He started hitting a few dead ends, forcing him to backtrack. But soon the dead ends became more frequent. He kept running frantically from dead end to dead end until he turned one corner and came to a stop facing a wall. He turned around to back track only to find that the way he came through was gone and he was trapped. He began to pound on the walls and search for a way out, but to no success. Atop the roofs sat Naruto watching the man panic in a crowded street.

Hidan appeared next to Naruto saying, "It seems you've improved in your genjutsu at least. Though I suggest you don't use 'em when fighting someone who isn't a complete dumbass." Naruto agreed and was amazed that he casted such an easy genjutsu on a man like him. An academy student would be able to sense this type of genjutsu.  
Naruto replied, "You should catch him now before the samurai in the area try and arrest him tou-san."

Hidan watched a little while longer as the man continued to run into people, knocking a few of them over, thinking he was trapped. "Hehe, shit sure is funny though. It's like watching a retarded walrus have a panic attack!". Naruto gave a little smile at his dad's antics, It made him happy when Hidan enjoyed his work. Six samurais soon came over to check out the commotion and saw a fat man going crazy in the middle of this happy festival. The leader of the samurai squad shouted, "Cease and desist! You are under arrest!"

Naruto dropped the genjutsu at that moment and Kaijiro looked around and saw he was surrounded by samurais and a few onlookers. He didn't understand what was going on. He froze however when he heard a voice behind him, "Got ya asshole…" He turned around and saw Hidan who snatched him up quick. The samurai's saw a man appear behind the one they were arresting, but before they could act both men disappeared. The samurai's started to search the area for the two people they thought they had cornered.

* A few miles away from the festival *

Hidan tossed the unconscious fat man into a tree as Naruto landed next to him, a bit slower than his father but still able to keep up. Hidan took his scythe off his back and the stopped, thinking for a few seconds. In a flash he flipped his weapon upside down with the handle pointing towards the blue sky. "Naruto..." Hidan said in a sorta distant voice. "yes tou-san?" Naruto answered. "Here as a reward for the good work earlier I'll let you use my scythe." Naruto nodded quickly and smiled at his father, carefully taking the heavy weapon from the older man's hands. It was always an honor to use his scythe, it was heavy for the young boy. But, he was getting better at holding it. "We need the fat mans head. We're gonna have to take it back to the client as proof." Naruto took a second to make sure it was positioned correctly before slamming it down, slicing the man's head clean off. Naruto then reached into his left pocket and pulled out a small sealing scroll and handed it to Hidan. "Thanks small-fry." He said taking the scroll out of his hand. Naruto took a couple of steps back as Hidan took a knee and grabbed the man's head then sealed it.

Hidan stood back up and stepped in the man's blood. He started then to move his leg dragging the blood with him until he formed a circle. Then he started again, this time making a upside down triangle, making the same symbol that hung around their necks "Come boy it's time to pray." Hidan said calmly, "Hai tou-san" Naruto replied. Hidan along with Naruto dropped to their knees, Hidan took his pendant in hand, while Naruto put both of his hands together.

Both men didn't speak any words aloud. However in their heads they were both praying feverishly, thanking Jashin for the kill he'd bestowed to them. Hidan broke the silence by speaking "I detest killing in the name of personal wealth, instead of in the name our Lord. However some exceptions need to be made in order for us to be well off…" Hidan picked up the scroll but continue speaking "...Come boy we need to get going, or the head will rot." Naruto quickly finished praying and stood, following Hidan. Both leaving the body to rot in the forest. "What's the plan after we turn in this assignment?" Naruto asked, no emotion in his voice.

"We got one more after this, little place called Hoshigakure in the land of Bears. I'll explain it more later, but it's a interesting mission I didn't want to pass up." Hidan said as he continued to walk in the direction of their checkpoint. "Understood" was Naruto's reply.

Hidan looked down at Naruto and was amazed at his progress thus far. Naruto had stopped showing emotion early on and was almost impossible to catch off guard. He knows that Naruto is motivated when it comes to impressing him. The kid doesn't show facial expressions to anyone but Hidan; and the only one he makes is a smile that he gives Hidan when he's praised. All in all Naruto was an ANBU in terms of emotions, but he still had a long way to go in his training. He took Naruto out and let him kill his first human to get him ready for both the life of a shinobi and loyal Jashinist.

He had killed a wandering merchant, the bastard had been scamming poor families into buying fake cures. The perfect candidate to receive Jashin's divine justice. Naruto took the man by surprise and had stabbed him through his throat, then performed his first sacrifice to Jashin. When Hidan told him he did a good job, Naruto smiled happily at Hidan's praise. Any other time however he just looks like he's uninterested. But that was because he believes he only needed to impress and be active around Hidan, the man whom he's taken to calling father.

* Konohagakure *

Konoha remained a happy, peaceful village even after the Kyuubi attack eight years ago. When word spread around the village that the Sandaime Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, sacrificed himself to seal the monster inside the Yondaime Hokage's daughter in order to protect their village. Some looked at Haru Namikaze as the savior of Konoha, while others saw her as demon. However the respect and awe the villagers felt for the Yondaime Hokage and his sealing abilities soon overrode that fear. A statue of the third kage when he was in his prime was made and set up in the center of Konoha's park. A place everyone visited to pay their respects to their old kage.

At the Academy, students were just being released out of their classes, running around with the excitement that comes with getting out of school. One little girl named Haru came out of the building. She had long blonde hair the color of beaten gold tied into a braid, whisker birthmarks on her cheeks, and cerulean blue eyes that look as pure and clear as a cloudless sky. She wore a blue shirt and long shorts that almost went past her knees . The little girl rushed out of the door and stopped, waiting for her friends to come out. She didn't wait long as three girls ran out of the Academy building heading straight for her.

One of the girls had shoulder length pink hair that was tied in a red ribbon and emerald green eyes. She was wearing a darker shade of blue for a shirt and light tan shorts. The second girl had platinum blonde hair that was shoulder length, blue eyes, two ring necklaces, a peach colored shirt, and black pants. Finally the third girl had dark blue hair in a hime-cut style, with chin-length strands framing her face. Her eyes were pupils, the irises nearly as white as the sclera, with a slight tinge of lavender. Unlike the other three girls she wore an expensive beige color kimono.

The three girls caught up with their blonde friend, following her away from the school grounds. The little pink haired girl asked her friends, "You guys wanna come over to my house?" First to respond was the platinum blonde haired girl, "Sorry Sakura, but my mother wants me to help around the shop a little more."

Haru nodded in reply, "Sorry I can't come over either. My brother is suppose to be returning from a mission today and I wanted to go see him."  
The white eyed girl told Sakura, "I'll come over. Tou-san is away on a business trip with my uncle and they won't be back for some time."  
"Thanks Hinata." Sakura said, smiling.  
Ino sighed "Man.. Haru, Hinata, and Sasuke-kun all have siblings. It'd be nice if I had a little sister." she pouted.

Haru told Ino, "It's good I guess, but onii-san doesn't have time to hang out. When he is home and not on missions he's always training at the Hokage's training grounds."  
Hinata nodded, adding, "Hanabi is still too young to really say anything yet. She's only three years old right now."  
Sakura said, "Still, I agree with Ino, it would be nice to have a little brother or sister." The four continued walking, talking with each other for awhile before they split up to go their separate ways.

Haru started running to the Hokage tower to go see her dad. Hopefully her brother Menma would be there as well. She made the final turn around the corner and she ran into someone. She fell back with a grunt and quickly looked up to apologize, "I'm so sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going-" She stopped when she realized she ran into Sasuke Uchiha.

Sasuke had raven black hair that spiked out in the back, black eyes, a long sleeve blue shirt with a fan symbol on the back, and white pants. The youngest son of Fugaku and Mikoto Uchiha, he was Itachi Uchiha's little brother. It was known around the village that Menma Namikaze and Itachi Uchiha were rivals ever since they graduated from the Academy the same year, both of them being only seven years old. but Itachi came out as number one, something her brother didn't' bother to worry about. Both got promoted to Chunin at ten years old; the only difference between the two was Itachi accepted his promotion to ANBU captain at thirteen, whereas her brother chose to become a Jounin instead. The two remained as close friends and rivals. Even after Itachi became ANBU he always sought out Menma to have a battle with.

Itachi had dark grey eyes along with black hair that hung near his cheeks to frame his face. He wore his hair in a long ponytail because his hair had a softer flow to it, lacking the spiky style at the back. His skin was also slightly darker. Though, Itachi's most distinguishing characteristics were the long pronounced creases under his eyes. Currently he was wearing his casual clothes which were a black shirt, with the Uchiha symbol embroidered on the back, and black pants.

Sasuke picked himself up and shouted, "Watch where you're going!"  
Haru stood up and stared him down shouting back, "Big talk for a shorty like you!" Anime style lighting shot out of their eyes connecting as the two continued to argue with one another. Sasuke stopped arguing when he felt someone place a hand on his shoulder.  
He turned around and saw his older brother Itachi smiling at him saying, "Sasuke-kun that's no way to talk to a friend is it." Sasuke looked down and Itachi looked at Haru, "Sorry for my little brother. Where are you off to Haru-chan?"

Haru blushed a deep shade of red before answering him with a worse stutter than Hinata, "W-W-W-Well I-I'm g-g-going t-to my d-d-dad's office to s-s-s-see m-my brother."  
Itachi chuckled at the little girl, knowing full well that the Hokage's daughter had a crush on him. "Mind if I join?" He asked Haru, "It's been awhile since I last saw Menma." Haru was still fashioning a blush, but nodded quickly. Itachi looked at his little brother asking him, "Do you want to tag along too Sasuke-kun?"

Sasuke looked at his brother nodding meekly. The three walked to the Hokage's tower with Haru and Itachi talking the whole time. When they reached the Hokage's secretary's desk Haru told her that she was there to see her father. Haru, Itachi, and Sasuke reached the Hokage's office and Haru opened the door without knocking, something her father was used to. She dashed inside and stopped as soon as she opened the door and saw her father at his desk wearing his cloak that she's almost always seen him in. Her eyes glanced to the only other in the room who had long wild spiky blonde hair with some of it kept in a low ponytail, he was wearing the traditional ninja vest and the blue ninja clothes.  
Haru immediately ran to him shouting, "Menma-oniichan! Your home!" She grabbed onto him hugging him tightly.

Minato laughed at the scene in front of him. Menma kneeled down to look his sister in the eyes and said, "It's good to see you Haru-hime." Haru laughed every time he called her that. Menma looked up and saw Itachi and Sasuke walk into the room. He greeted both, "Hello there Itachi-san, Sasuke-kun." Minato also greeted them all as well.

Itachi bowed to them saying, "Good evening, Menma-san, Hokage-sama." Sasuke mimicked his brother, greeting both Minato and Menma exactly the same way Itachi did.

"Haru sweetie do you mind taking Sasuke out into the lobby?" Minato asked his daughter. "Daddy has to talk with Menma for a moment." Haru was about to pout, but Menma said to her, "Don't worry aniki will be here when you get back."

Haru sadly agreed and walked out of the room. Itachi nudged Sasuke. prompting him to follow her. Like Haru Sasuke walked out dejectedly, wanting to hang out with his brother longer. Itachi closed the door after they left and walked over to his rival, standing next to him as Minato went over his son's mission report. He leaned back in his chair after reading his son's report and said, "Another lead that turned out to be a dead end."

Menma looked down apologetically, "I thought that this would be the one to, but it turns out the last time anyone saw the kid was two years ago. It's possible that it was Naruto, but I just don't know. Sorry dad."

Minato immediately said to his son, "Don't apologize for this. If this child really was Naruto then there is a chance that he's still out there." They didn't mind talking about this in front of Itachi, since this kind of information was common. Naruto's kidnapping was common knowledge to everyone in Konoha. There were rumors everywhere that some would see a spiky red haired boy whenever someone left the village for a vacation or something else. Itachi had pitched in and when he finished his missions early he would ask around looking for the Namikaze's missing child.

Minato put the paperwork in his desk, "We're getting close though," He told his son "I feel it. For now, though, go home and get some rest. Tell your mother I'll be home later and that I don't have to work late tonight."  
Itachi and Menma both bowed politely to the Hokage as they left his office. Itachi walked beside his rival before he asked, "Eight years huh?"

Menma nodded, "Yeah… Eight years since my baby brother was kidnapped from Konoha's hospital." He replied, "My mother blames herself because she said she left the room he was in for a moment to go see if Haru was okay and the nurses said they'd watch him." Menma stopped walking and Itachi stopped as well and looked at him as he continued, "When mom and dad got back to the room to see Naruto, the nurses had been killed and Naruto was nowhere to be seen. Mom keeps saying had she stayed in the room she would've been able to fight off whoever it was who took Naruto."

Itachi didn't really know what to do to really comfort someone, so the only thing he could say was, "Don't worry Menma, you'll find him." Though Menma didn't feel any better, he put on a brave face and went to fetch his sister so they could head home.

* Hokage Mansion *

Haru burst through the kage mansion heading straight for the kitchen followed by her brother. Haru reached the kitchen and saw her mother chopping up some vegetables for dinner, "Hi kaa-san!" said Haru excitedly. Kushina turned around and saw her daughter. Putting the knife down, she kneeled to give her daughter a hug.

"How was your classes today?" Kushina asked.

Haru gave her mother a great big smile telling her, "I did great! Our teacher is Iruka Umino and he's teaching us what to look for in the field to eat when we run out of supplies."  
Kushina said, "That's great, I can't believe you're already at the Academy. Before long you'll be a Konoha ninja just like your brother."  
Haru blushed and smiled at her mother's remark. Menma sat down at the kitchen table and decided to tease his little sister. "That's the second time you blushed today isn't it Haru-hime?"  
Haru turned to look at her brother shouting, "Nuh uh!"

"So Itachi was lying when he saw you blush earlier?" Menma asked. Kushina started to laugh that her daughter already had a crush and it was the future clan head of the Uchiha Clan.  
Kushina told her daughter, "Haru-chan why don't you go upstairs and go wash up." Haru didn't' argue and darted off up to her room leaving Kushina and her oldest child.  
Menma knew what was coming. Every time he went on a mission that had to do with Naruto she just needed to know. Kushina sat down at the table next to her son, no longer carrying her smile , and asked him, "What did you find?".

Menma tapped his fingers on the table while telling his mother, "Nothing. Turns out whoever that village saw who resembled Naruto was two years ago. There is a chance it was him, but there is another chance it is a kid who looks like Naruto. However a kid with Uzumaki hair is uncommon. Which installs some hope that he passed by." He hated to give his mother bad news, but it was better than getting her hopes too high up. Menma got up to leave, but told his mom, "I'm gonna find him. I'm not gonna stop till I find him." He started to walk away saying one last thing, "Dad doesn't have to work late tonight and he said he'll be home when he can."

Kushina watched him leave. Over the years she still holds the thought that Naruto is alive and well somewhere out in the world. That thought kept her from doing anything drastic and life risking. She got up from the table and continued making dinner for her family occasionally looking out of the kitchen window watching the sunset, "Naruto... Where are you my son?"

* Somewhere in Fire Country *

Naruto was sitting outside a big building in a town as he waited for Hidan to conclude his business with the men inside. He watched as people walked past him, some alone, some holding the hands of young children. For some reason the ones with the children seemed happier. Naruto didn't understand what could make someone so happy to hold their kids hand like that when they see them every day.

Hidan would occasionally buy him scrolls and books to have him read a lot as part of his training. He said it was so he would be smarter than most ninjas, and had even given Naruto ones on human emotions. Yet even after reading them he still didn't understand. He didn't get what love was, friendship, or many other emotions people express to one another. He only truly understood acceptance, like he accepted the fact he's a trained killer, he's accepted that he's killed, but he likes when Hidan accepts him for who he is and expresses gratitude toward him. Or when he did right by Jashin-sama, knowing that even when he did something socially unacceptable. That he was doing right by God, and that would save him a place in Jashin's realm.

That was all Naruto knew and that was all he cared to know. Well...except his hair of course. It stuck out like a fucking sore thumb. Another thing he noticed when in a large group of people. In his short life never once did he see someone else with his color hair. And he began to wonder if it meant something, perhaps he was apart of those clans he read and heard about. Maybe he had the potential to be an even better weapon for Hidan and Jashin-sama. "I'll ask Tou-san when the Time is right." He said to himself.

Hidan was currently counting a case of money, payment for 'taking care' of Kajiro. The man's head was currently sitting on the center of the table for the clients to see. One of the men asked Hidan, "Thank you for your services, but might we ask you for a tiny favor?" Hidan finished counting the money in the case, closing it he looked at the man asking for a favor. "Is it too much trouble… Or could you please dispose of this thing?" He asked referring to the man's head.

Hidan headed for the door saying, "Do I look like the fucking garbage man to ya? What, you want a handy while I'm at it? Dispose of the damn thing yourself." and left the room. As he exited the building he saw Naruto sitting right where he'd left him. Walking up behind Naruto he lightly tapped him with his foot. Naruto looked up and saw hidan was ready to hit the road. He quickly stood up and followed him.

As they walked out of the village Hidan told Naruto, "When we get farther into the woodlands we will improve your taijutsu and pain tolerance. When we get to the one-on-one you'll attack with the intention to kill, or your skills won't improve."

"Hai tou-san." Naruto replied.

* One Hour & Thirty Minutes Later *

Both men had found a good sized clearing, and Hidan had ordered Naruto to pick a tree and attack it. Naruto took the proper stance that Hidan had taught him and began to punch the tree. First he did so slowly, working on rhythm. Then he started to pick up his speed, and when he built both rhythm and speed he started combos. Soon the sound of fists roughly smacking into a tree could be heard throughout the small clearing.

Hidan watched for a moment to make sure Naruto was doing everything correctly. When he was sure Naruto was doing as instructed, he reached into his back pocket and pulled out a small orange book. He walked over to a another tree that was directly behind his apprentice and sat down, resting his back on it. Glancing one more time at Naruto, then started to read.

After about an hour Hidan noticed it was starting to get dark. He stood up and placed his book back into his pocket. 'I should start wrapping this up.' He did a couple of stretches then walked over towards Naruto. He stopped a foot behind the boy and looked at his work.  
The tree had noticeable dents from where Naruto's fists had impacted, blood could also be seen on the tree as well. Looking at Naruto's hands he saw tears in the skin from the constant hard contact with the hard tree. Blood was leaking from them albeit not a lot, but noticeable. He could hear the redheaded boy give out the occasional grunt, and his breathing was a little heavy. Quite impressive considering that kids in the academy (at least from his experience) hadn't even started this kind of training. Yet Naruto showed no signs of stopping anytime soon. To say Hidan wasn't impressed would be a lie.

"Alright ya little shit. Time for some sparing. Remember that if you land a hit you get to chow on a cup of ramen got 10 minutes."

Naruto turned immediately and got back into position, and the bloodthirsty nature that Hidan had begun to install into him took over. He then tried to knee Hidan in the head, but the Nuke-nin grabbed his knee to block. While he was holding Naruto in the air Naruto tried to punch Hidan in the head, but Hidan easily tossed Naruto to the ground. Quick to recover Naruto pulled out a kunai and tried to slash Hidan. Naruto was ambidextrous, able to switch his kunai from hand to hand with little loss of skill. Hidan taught him this to better his weapon handling skills, tossed hot coals at his feet to teach him footwork, and kept him training at high altitudes for his stamina and endurance. Naruto was extremely resilient and never gave up so far. Something that Impressed Hidan so much that he could say he was proud of the young blonde.

The little ninja held the kunai in his right hand and tried to stab Hidan, but the masked ninja grabbed Naruto's wrist, stopping him. Immediately Naruto dropped the kunai and caught it with his left hand, slashing at Hidan again. Hidan was quicker, releasing him, and Naruto missed Hidan's arm. Letting out a hiss of annoyance, Naruto kept attacking, switching up his tactics.

He was suddenly stopped when Hidan's hand landed on his head; and he rustled it. time was up. Hidan pointed to the forest saying, "Alright you know the drill." Naruto nodded and headed into the forest to hunt for his dinner tonight. He watched the little eight year old head off into the forest kunai in hand.

Hidan sat down next to a tree where he set down his briefcase full of money and scythe, starting a campfire so they would be ready to eat dinner later. He Picked up his canteen and poured some water into the little cup and pushed chakra into his hand. He felt the cup heat up. When he felt the water boiling (the pain felt a little good) and when he was sure it was finished, he gave a small prayer and began eating. He sucked it down at a decent pace and, when he finished he leaned back and patiently waited for Naruto to return. He frequently used the ramen trick when training Naruto. Ever since he treated Naruto to some a while back and learned of the boy's near addiction to the stuff. Also it was funny to eat it in his face when Naruto was given a task he obviously couldn't achieve. Man it felt good being an asshole.

About an hour later Naruto returned carrying two dead rabbits and a few berries he found in the woods. Naruto began to skin the rabbits carving a few sticks clean to spit the skinned rabbits over the fire for cooking.  
Naruto placed them next to the fire and kept an eye on them so they didn't burn. After they were done he grabbed one of the rabbits and gave it to Hidan. After he gave Hidan his food Naruto grabbed his and both men said a prayer to Jashinist for the meal. Then dug in.

Hidan took a big bite out of his rabbit and chewed it quickly, before quickly taking his next bit. "As I said earlier we're heading to the Land of Bears to a little ninja village called Hoshigakure. Some asshole from that village named Akahoshi wants me to help him kill their weak-ass Sandaime Hoshikage." Naruto was a little shocked that Hidan would accept a mission that caliber.

He could see the red heads concern. "Though I wouldn't normally accept such a mission. And sure as hell wouldn't had it been any of the other dick-bag kage's. But, I never heard of no fucking Hoshikage." Hidan told him, "Truth is no one fucking has. The other five great countries do not see this village worthy enough for anyone take the name kage nor a great nation, but they still decided to call the village leader kage instead of chief. Guess they feel confident in the assholes ability. I don't know any ninja from that village that would even be worthy of the title kage. It's a fucking joke really."  
"So if this is an assassination mission from that village then...wouldn't that cast suspicion on the ones responsible as well?" asked Naruto.

Hidan started waving his hand around while continuing to explain to Naruto, "Ya, that's where you come in. You'll set up explosive tags around the base of the kage's tower and bury the fucker once I'm done. I'll give you the exploding tags and tell you where to place them accordingly."

Naruto agreed and pulled out his canteen to take a drink of water, and took a big swig. After that the only sound that could be heard was the fire crackling. Naruto looked up to see Hidan resting against a tree, with his eyes cracked open and peering into the fire.

"Tou-san…" Naruto asked quietly, but still devoid of any emotion. "Ya, what the fuck do you want?" was his response. "Why is my hair different from everyone else's?" He figured it was good a time as any to ask. If Hidan didn't know he'd stop thinking about it, no reason to waste time on such trivial matters.  
Hidan looked from the fire and to his apprentice, then back to the fire. "It's something Uzumaki's inherent from what I gather. I don't know a whole lot shit about them, when I was young it was close to their downfall anyways. Bastards wanted to keep out of the 2nd Great War, signed their own deaths by doing so. If you want peace you need to fight for it, not sit down like a pussy. They were some good fighters though, outnumbered and they still kicked the shit of Iwa, Kumo, and Kiri."

Hidan shifted a little trying to get comfortable, and then closed his eyes. "I fought one a long time ago, it was a pain in my ass to dodge all those chakra chains. And his chakra reserves didn't help either, but I won of course. Ya, gotta deal out a lot more than that to take out my ass." Naruto gave him a look and started to lightly rub his chin "Chakra...chains?" He said in a questioning tone. "Ya, it's something only the fucking Uzumaki's learned how to do. Takes a lot of Yang chakra, something I don't possess enough of to do it properly. Only Uzumaki's did, with a few exceptions." He looked into Naruto's eyes and said "If you train hard enough maybe you'll crack the secret, eh? Not to mention your naturally large chakra reserves." Hidan yawned then did a few hand signs, and blew out the fire with wind chakra. "Now go to sleep, we have a busy ass day tomorrow." With that silence fell on them again.

'I'll learn how to use those chains one day. I'll become the perfect weapon tou-san.' With that he laid down and put his head on his arms. Quickly falling asleep.

* Morning *

The two ninjas woke up early around five o'clock in the morning. Hidan grabbed his briefcase and they headed out to Bear Country for the assassination assignment. They walked on a main path for a good three hours, passing a farm along the way. Hidan noticed some straw laying around and he decided they should relax there for a moment and make some straw hats incase it rained along the way. Naruto didn't know how to make one, so he watched Hidan make his. Afterwards he quickly caught on and mimicked how he made his. After they finished making their straw hats, Hidan looked to Naruto and

nodded at him to make sure Naruto was ready. When he nodded back both men got up and began their journey once more.

They continued through Fire Country at a kind of slow pace due to all the stops. Apparently there was a ninja going around coning travelers and ninjas around the area were just inspecting and talking to a few people. Thankfully Hidan and Naruto were able to avoid the ninjas, but they had to take the long ways around. Soon they found themselves the only ones on the current path. Hidan noticed ahead of them coming in their direction was a four man ninja squad from Konoha. One of the ninjas both Naruto and Hidan both recognized.

The one leading the group was wearing a jounin vest, but a tattered and torn brown vest rested on top of that one. He also wore a fishnet shirt under, black ninja pants, and black forearm guards. His appearance was somewhat intimidating, a few battle scars on his face, a small black beard, and black hair tied in a high spiky ponytail. If it was one thing Hidan taught Naruto it was to recognize ninjas from as many villages as possible and the reputations behind them.

The four man team got closer and Hidan thought, 'Shikaku Nara, clan head of the Nara. Hidan kept walking hoping to avoid confrontation with this man. Naruto was a bit nervous since Hidan had told him to avoid any and all Konoha ninja no matter what. Of course he never told him why, but Naruto didn't wish to ask. The gap between the two groups grew smaller and smaller until they passed each other, neither group saying anything to one another.

Hidan thought they were in the clear, but stopped when he heard. "Hold it right there…"  
Both Naruto and Hidan stopped and turned around slowly they saw Shikaku was looking right at Hidan. Feeling uneasy Hidan started to straighten up, and made sure Naruto was behind him. Shikaku walked up to Hidan leaving a good arm distance between them, he asked Hidan, "Do you know anything about a con artist going around passing himself off as a healer? He's been scamming travelers and we've been getting a lot of reports along this area."

Hidan casually answered, "No I'm afraid I haven't. My son and I are just passing through, trying to get home after a long fishing trip and as you can see we had a stroke of bad luck." He then gave a little laugh, trying to pull himself off as a regular everyday man. "My wife is expecting the both of us home soon."

Shikaku looked and decided to comment on the fact that he had a slash going through his headband, that hung on his neck. "Usually that slash marking means for nuke-nins that they defected from their village."

Naruto moved next to Hidan and started pulling on his arm cloak. Hidan didn't look at Naruto but easily came up with something, "I received the mark when my squad was ambushed by bandits a long time ago. Back when I was a ninja. Now if you don't mind you're making my son nervous and I'd like to leave. If I was a nuke-nin I wouldn't be traveling with my only son. That would put him in danger, so if you'll excuse us we need to get my son home. If not my wife will give me an earful, as a man I'm sure you understand. "  
Shikaku kept his eyes glued on the man, "Indeed i do, sorry for keeping you." Shikaku turned around and his team joined him, walking off quickly.  
Hidan told Naruto, "Let's gets the fuck out of here." Naruto didn't let go of Hidan's arm and followed him.

* Konoha *

Minato was taking a stroll through the village with his wife Kushina on his arm. They usually took walks like this together in the mornings just so they could get out. Haru was at the Academy and Menma was out and about meeting up with his old teammates, even though he didn't know them very long. They walked around until Kushina said, "I'm a little hungry, how about we eat at Ichiraku's?"

Minato, being an intelligent man, wasn't one to argue when it came to her and ramen. "Okay let's go." he agreed and led her to the ramen bar. It was a small shack restaurant with only six barstools. Kushina moved the curtain's out of the way allowing her and Minato to walk through. "Hello Teuchi-san." Kushina greeted.  
An old man in his early forties looked up from making ramen and saw Kushina and Minato. "Oh hello there Kushina-sama, Hokage-sama." Kushina giggled telling him, "I told you already Teuchi-san, just call me Kushina; you don't need the -sama."

Minato said to the old restaurant owner, "She wanted ramen again. So let's just have the usual salt ramen and I'll just have the beef ramen."  
"Coming right up." Teuchi said with a smile.  
Kushina looked around and asked, "Where's Ayume at?"  
Teuchi responded while making the ramen, "Oh I sent her to the market to get some more ingredients and other groceries. She just left so she won't be back for a while."

After awhile the ramen was done and he served it to his two customers. Both Kushina and Minato said in unison, "Itadakimasu!" and they both dug in.  
As they ate they noticed someone else enter the restaurant. Minato greeted him first, "Hey there Kakashi."

Kakashi was wearing the standard jounin outfit instead of his ANBU armor, "Hello sensei, Kushina-san."  
Kushina also greeted Kakashi, "Good morning Kakashi. How have you been?"  
Kakashi shrugged his shoulders, "I've been okay. I saw you and sensei here and thought I'd drop in to say hi."

"That's nice of you Kakashi." said Minato. The three got caught up, talking about things that happened recently, including Haru's advancement in her classes. But her only trouble was she can't get the clone technique down.

Teuchi walked in the back to put some things away leaving the three to talk. Kushina finished her ramen then just sat there looking at her empty bowl. Minato looked over at her and saw her saddened face asking, "What's wrong?"  
Kushina sighed asking, "Do you think Naruto would've liked ramen?"  
Minato smiled saying, "I'm sure he would, after all you, Menma, and Haru would kill someone for some ramen. Not to men he also resembles you the most."  
"He's probably out there right now having himself a bowl of some ramen as we speak." Kakashi added.  
Kushina brightened up and said, "Yeah. Well I'm gonna go back home and clean up a little."

Minato stood up setting the money for their meal on the counter saying to Kakashi, "I'll see you later Kakashi."  
Kakashi nodded to his sensei and watched the couple leave. Minato decided to walk his wife home before he went back to his office.

* Next Day: Land of Bears *

Naruto and Hidan were waiting at the meeting point for the one hiring Hidan for this job. It was raining and both of them had on their straw hats on. Naruto had drawn a target board on a tree was throwing a few of his shurikens at the target to get his aim down, but was too lazy to stand up and get them, so he waited till they piled on.  
Hidan watched as he went through his whole pack of kunais and decided to motivate him. "Oi, keep up the practice squirt."

Naruto got up quickly, ran over to the piled up weapons, and picked them all up off the ground and got serious. He stood up and started to really toss the shurikens at the tree digging them deep into its already scarred trunk. Hidan witnessed how some of his shurikens veered off course and he could see that Naruto wasn't taking the wind into calculation, another thing he'd need to teach him later. They waited for a good hour before Hidan sensed someone nearby. "Naruto wrap it up. The assholes who paid us are here." Naruto did as he was told and quickly ran over to the tree pulling out all the shurikens with all his strength since they were in pretty deep. After he got all of them he put them in his pouch and rushed over to Hidan waiting for their contact.

Hidan saw three men walking towards them. One man had ash gray colored hair tied in a high ponytail, light blue eyes, a baby blue kimono with a long indigo colored vest over that, brown gloves, shin guards, and a blue Hoshi headband. His two followers had a dark blue flak jacket and an indigo colored ninja outfit One of the men had black hair that went down while the other was a large bald man.

The three ninjas stopped across from Hidan with the leader asking, "Tell me are you Hidan the mercenary for higher?" Hidan nodded "Yeah, that's right.". The man grinned saying, "My name is Akahoshi. My two companions are Shiso…" he pointed at the man with hair "...and Yotaka." pointing at the Bald guy with his other hand.

"Okay, now what's the fucking plan?" Hidan asked.

Akahoshi told him, "Let's go to Hoshi first and I'll fill you in then. Please we don't have much time." Hidan looked at Naruto and picked him up and sat him on his shoulder and followed Akahoshi and his men.

* * *

 **Hope y'all enjoyed it. Chapter three is gonna take a little more time. Also I'd like to address something. In the anime Hidan was 22, pretty young guy. However as I'm sure most of you caught, in my fanfiction he's much older. Anyways please leave a review if ya like. Helps me figure out what I'm doing right and wrong. See y'all next time!**

 **Also I'd like to thank ParasiteX12 for being such a big help! Y'all should check her out some time.**


	3. And everything was simple

**Honestly it's pretty funny that I think it'll take a few days to crank these out. But, then I realize I have nothing happening all week. Anyways I just wanna thank you guys for the support. I really do appreciate it! Also I'd like to thank ParasiteX12, without her these updates would take longer.**

* * *

* Hoshigakure *

Hidan, Akahoshi, Shiso, and Yotaka emerged from the Hoshikage's tower. All but Hidan had injuries and he wasn't amused with how the battle turned out. Hidan quickly overwhelmed the so called kage easily and he didn't even need to use effort. Once the four men walked out of the tower Hidan asked them, "know where's my fucking money?"

Akahoshi smiled and pulled out a scroll and unsealed it's content, popping out of the scroll was a metal case full of money, "I'm a man of my word, so here is your payment Hidan-san." Like every other time Hidan gets paid he counts the money, but on an occasion like this he closed the case and took it saying, "It better be here otherwise you'll be fighting a ninja of kage level." Akahoshi smiled replying, "If it's one thing I'm known for in this village it's that I keep my word."

Hidan started laughing like a madman and raised his hand in the air with his hand open and quickly made a fist. After that a huge explosion erupted at the base of the tower and the entire lobby of the tower gave way and the tower collapsed. The three Hoshi nins were surprised and ran from the building so as not to get caught up in the explosion. Hidan leapt high up in the air and landed onto one of the buildings next to Naruto who was in a meditating position and was making the ram hand sign. Hidan told Naruto, "We got our cash, so lets blow this shit-hole of a village." Naruto agreed and quickly jumped onto Hidan's shoulder and Hidan began running away from the building at high speeds so as not to get connected with the explosion.

The three Hoshi ninjas stopped and looked up at the building watching it as it crumbled. Yotaka shouted, "Should we go after him?" Akahoshi held his hand out saying, "No. This actually works better. A nuke nin appears and attacks our Hoshikage and kills him taking the money left in his office, before setting off a series of explosive tags." Shiso asked, "So do we tell them that Hidan did it?"

Akahoshi shook his head saying no, "We can't do that. Until I am able to control the meteorite's chakra we wouldn't stand a chance against that man if we released that it was him. By the time I'm able to do that it will be of no use to us, I'll let him leave with this one, but should I see him again I will kill him the next time." He paused for a moment telling both men, "Let's get to work. ANBU should be here soon and we have to explain what's happened." Both men agreed and the three jumped away from the building.

* Outside of Hoshigakure *

Naruto and Hidan were sitting on a cliff and the little ninja was the one counting the money while Hidan unraveled a scroll he found inside the Hoshikage's office. He glanced through the scroll and saw that they were methods to use jutsu based off of a meteorite, he remembered the Hoshikage trying to explain the dangers to Akahoshi about a certain power. Though Hidan held no interest in such a thing. He made an assumption that these techniques would be useless unless you used the meteorite's power, so he chunked it of the hill. "What a peice of garbage." he said under his breath. Naruto finished counting the money and told Hidan, "It's all here dad."

Hidan rolled the scroll back up and told Naruto, "I think congratulations are in order squirt." Naruto was a little bit confused and tilted his head to the side."We worked like a couple of smooth criminals. I could've done it without you, but it wouldn't have been as hilarious." Hidan once again began to laugh and snatched the case, while picking up his massive scythe. "Did ya not see their faces when that tower collapsed? Hahaha, it looked like the bald one shit himself!"

Naruto smiled and followed Hidan when he started walking off saying, "My only regret is that we couldn't sacrifice the bastard to Jashin-sama Tou-san."  
Hidan looked down at Naruto and said, "Damn straight squirt, when we get back we'll pray for forgiveness. Both for not doing a sacrifice and killing for personal wealth." Naruto agreed and quietly followed him back to their home in the Land of Snow.

* A Week Later: Konoha *

Minato was working in his office talking to his sensei Jiraiya while he was working. Jiraiya was off in the corner with a typewriter on a roll with his new story of Icha Icha novels. Minato was still going through his daily routine of approving and denying important documents, going through the new squads for the newest graduates, picking the squad leaders and going through mission assignments.

Jiraiya was snickering after completing another chapter, "Hey Minato I'm on a roll over here. Yet another masterpiece of the great Jiraiya!" Minato smiled saying, "Yeah and all it cost you were two broken ribs, a few bruises, some lacerations, and fractured skull from the women at the bath house." Jiraiya told his student, "It's all for the sake of my readers who are the hardworking citizens, to loyal ninjas all around the nations, and even the Daimyos. So you can see that I have a lot of responsibility."

Minato rolled his eyes and continued with his work and Jiraiya did the same. The two men worked in silence for a few hours before there came a knock at his door, Minato looked up from his work and called out, "Enter." The door opened up to reveal his secretary holding a document handing it over to him, "Hokage-sama this is a report from a the ninja village Hoshigakure."

Minato took the document and said, "Arigatou." His secretary bowed to him and took her leave. Minato looked over the document and clearly heard his sensei say, "Tell me why we have an alliance with them? That village has no ninjas worth mentioning nor do they have any power we need to concern ourselves with." Minato kept glancing over the work and told his sensei, "True and it would seem that they aren't very powerful neither. Apparently their Hoshikage was killed a week ago by a nuke-nin, they have only a lead that it was a man with a giant scythe and an accomplice that looked to be either a very short person or a child." Minato tossed the document on his desk saying, "Since we are in an alliance with them they are requesting that we send over a squad to help track the assassin and that they will pay whatever the amount is for the mission."

Jiraiya asked, "You gonna do it?" Minato pulled out from his drawer, "Most likely the evidence is washed away since they waited a week, but I'll send an Inuzuka, a Aburame, and a Hyuuga to do the job. I think I'll send Menma on this mission so he could be happy with finding more information on Naruto." Jiraiya sighed saying to his student, "It's been eight years now Minato… I know that you and the rest of your family believe that he's alive, but in this world and in these times it's highly unlikely. Like with that whole Kumogakure situation last year, ninjas will do whatever it takes to get the edge on others, by any means. With the Hyuugas heiress they would probably use her to breed stronger ninjas and with Naruto they might have had an idea in their head that they could have an army of flash ninjas."

Minato looked at his sensei with unease, but Jiraiya continued, "Look I know you don't like the idea of something bad happening to Naruto, but that's just how this world is. Especially with if it is Iwa then it's even less likely since Iwa's economy is on the low and they would be in a desperate situation to kidnap him." Minato leaned back in his chair and pulled out from his desk a book and tossed it lightly to his sensei. Jiraiya caught the book, he looked at it and then placed it off to the side.

Minato told him, "I named my son after the character in that book because I believed that Naruto would grow up to be just like the protagonist. I wanted to be able to see him actually grow to be like that, but eight years ago as you know made it impossible. Now my family won't give up until he is back home where he belongs, everyone else might've given up after this long, but not us… I refuse to believe that my son dead and my family refuses that as well." Jiraiya stood up and unrolled a seal with writings already on it and sealed his typewriter inside of it, he put the scroll away and put on his sandals telling the man before him, "Well I'll be back." Jiraiya opened the window and said, "I'm gonna go on a scouting mission to look for an eight year old who went missing. I'll let you know what I find. See ya gaki." Jiraiya jumped out the window to the ground below. Minato smiled saying to himself, "Thank you sensei."

* Hokage Mansion *

Kushina, Haru and Haru's friends from the Academy were sitting down watching a sparring match between Menma and Itachi. Haru's friends from school consisted of Hinata Hyuuga, Sakura Haruno, Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, Choji Akimichi, Shino Aburame, Sasuke Uchiha, Kiba Inuzuka, and Kiba's puppy he got named Akamaru. All were watching the fight at the Hokage's training ground and were eager to see the fight between the two. Kushina thought it was a bit strange that Itachi would be the one to seek out her son to fight instead of the other way around, Menma considered himself a normal everyday ninja, but Itachi was known as the strongest Uchiha and a genius among his peers. Itachi though kept seeking out Menma and always wanted to fight him, Itachi rarely challenged other ninjas and Menma doesn't challenge others at all.

Menma and Itachi were keeping their fight a pure taijutsu match and didn't want to risk using weapons or jutsu since a stray attack could harm the kids. Itachi had his sharingan activated and Menma had nothing but his pure speed on his side. Itachi tried to punch Menma, but he knocked Itachi's fist away and he punched back at Itachi. The two kept countering the others moves and it seemed the fight would be at a standstill. Both teens stopped however when they sensed someone enter, they looked over to where Kushina was and saw two ANBU ninjas bowing down to her.

Kushina noticed them as well asking in a cheery tone, "Hello, is there something you need?" One of the ANBU was a woman with purple hair and a cat mask while the other had on a tiger mask and he had spiky brown hair. The tiger masked ANBU said, "Kushina-sama, the Hokage needs to speak with Menma-sama immediately concerning a mission." Kushina looked from the two ANBU to her son and waved him over. Menma used his speed and appeared right next to his mother in a blink of an eye. Menma asked, "My father sends for me?"

Both the ANBU were still bowing and nodded their heads. Menma reached over and grabbed a towel to wipe the sweat off of his neck, "Alright let me get into my gear and I'll head up there as soon as I'm ready." Both the ANBU nodded again and blurred out of the area. Haru stood up and asked, "You're leaving already? You just got home barely a week ago." Haru began to pout. Menma shook his head and kneeled down to his sister's level saying, "Look aniki is a ninja of Konoha now, I will always be called away on missions for weeks at a time maybe even a month. This is something aniki needs to do."

Kushina kept smiling telling her daughter, "Besides you'll have to do the same thing when you graduate from the academy and become a ninja like your aniki." Haru looked at her mom to her brother saying, "Okay…" Menma patted her head and told everyone, "I'll try and get this mission over with quickly so I'll be back to see if I'm maybe made a Jounin sensei this year." Kushina said to her son, "Don't keep your hopes up."

Itachi walked over to Menma asking, "Mind if we pick up where we left off when you return?" Mema rubbed the back of his head, "Umm yeah I guess if there's time." Itachi told his friend, "Good luck on your mission." Menma gave Itachi a thumbs up and jolted to his room to get set up. Kushina stood up from her spot asking the kids, "Okay how about I make you guys lunch."

Choji stood up first shouting, "Food!" Ino hit him in the back of his head scolding him, "Be more respectful!" Hinata bowed to Kushina saying, "Thank you for letting me eat here." Kushina hugged Hinata saying, "Oh you're so cute when you're polite." Haru said to her friends, "Come on guys let's go wait in the living room till mom finishes cooking." The rest of the kids nodded and ran inside following after Haru. Sasuke started to run, but noticed his brother was putting on his sandals and was about to leave, "Aniki are you leaving?" Itachi looked at his brother and said, "Yes Sasuke-kun I am. Have fun with your friends there is something I need to do." Sasuke said, "Can I go with you if you want?"

Itachi made a hand motion with his hand for Sasuke to go. Sasuke ignored it and ran at his brother, Itachi put his index and middle finger together and lightly poked Sasuke in the forehead saying, "Another time Sasuke-kun." Sasuke rubbed the spot where Itachi poked him and saw his brother walk back into the Hokage's training ground before jumping over the huge wall separating the training ground from the rest of the area around them. Kushina watched the whole interaction and kept on smiling saying to Sasuke, "Sasuke-kun are you gonna stay?" Sasuke looked at Kushina and said, "Hai." He ran past her and into the living room where the rest of the kids were at. Kushina then went into the kitchen to prepare lunch for the kids.

* Land of Snow*

The Land of Snow was a decent sized island just west of Iwa. For as long as Hidan could remember he'd owned a small temple by the cliffs of the island that made perfect conditions for his and now Naruto's training. When he had abandoned his birth village, Hidan used his inheritance and what little money he possessed to purchase it. There was a small ninja system on the island, but Hidan refused to send Naruto there. Saying that they were weak, so their training had to be shit. So, he instead focused his time on training Naruto. He didn't have to worry about ninjas coming over to his home since there weren't many where they lived. Not to mention they were a 2 hour walk away from Yuki, the capital. Nevertheless Hidan and Naruto loved it. They could train and worship Jashin without any disturbances. And when the time for sacrifice was at hand, no one could track them back.

The two Jashinist's walked the snow covered path to their home coming to a decent sized temple, painted black with matching black tiles on the roof, and red double doors. It had 6 rooms, one bathroom, a living room, a large praying room, a study, and of course two bedrooms. It indeed fit the two perfectly. Hidan made the ram hand sign and the kanji for the word 'Key' appeared over the double doors and it opened up by itself.

Hidan told Naruto, "I'm going to the bank in Yuki to deposit the cash from our recent jobs and I'll be back later. I want you to go into the den and begin your exercises, when I return I'm going to start your element training after prayer. Understood?" Naruto nodded and Hidan said, "Good. Also make sure everything is ready for prayer when I get back. I'll see you later." Hidan walked back down the path in the direction of Yuki. Naruto walked inside the house and closed the door, once the door shut the kanji for the word 'Lock' appeared and it locked up the door. Naruto took off his sandals and placed them neatly by the wall to his right. Naruto walked throughout the entranceway passed the prayer room and into a den.

Naruto opened the door and inside the room were weights of all sizes, some were even bigger than Naruto. He walked over to one of the windows and opened up the blinds to letting what little light was out in while he trained. Naruto walked up to a body mirror that resided in the room and inspected himself. Naruto's face was completely normal, no scars or any other kind of marking was on his face, his hair was spiky and red.

After he finished inspecting himself he walked over to some weights that were the perfect size for him. He started on his workouts he always does whenever he comes home, though he couldn't wait to begin his element training. Hidan had told him many times before that he was a little too young to start any kind of real ninjutsu training, but seeing as how he wants to teach him now means that Naruto might just be ready for it.

* 4 Hours Later *

Hidan had finished his business in town and was currently carrying a small slip of paper in his hand that he picked up from a ninja shop in town. He could clearly see his home walking up the snowy pathway, doing the same thing as he did before he unlocked the door to his home and locked it back up with the same seal method. He took off his leather jacket and put it on the rack, took off his sandals and walked to the weight room. When he opened the door he saw Naruto was hanging upside down on one of the wooden beams on the ceiling while lifting weights. Naruto paused and saw Hidan walk in and he dropped the weights on the ground not minding that the two weights dented the floor, he unhooked his legs from the beam and turned his body in the air and landed on his feet.

Naruto was breathing heavily, sweating bullets, and Hidan can only assume that he hasn't stopped working out since he left him. Naruto said, "I set up the prayer room an hour ago and got straight back to training." Hidan nodded and motioned his head for Naruto to follow him, and began walking to the prayer room. When both men arrived Hidan stopped and looked around, making sure everything was done correctly. On the floor a giant red freshly painted symbol of Jashin laid, and on each point of the triangle burned a candle. However in the center of the triangle lay a black leather book that had obviously seen some years. When Hidan was sure everything was set up correctly he walked into the center of the triangle. Naruto followed and both man got on their knees, Hidan picked the book up and said to Naruto "We shall now begin saying Jashin's prayer." Naruto put his hands together in a praying motion and Hidan took his pendant in hand. Again neither men spoke, but in their heads prayed boldly.

It was a big misconception that Jashin only wanted pain and suffering. Jashin in truth wanted peace to mankind. However he believed because man had free will that it was impossible. Only through bloody conflict could it be achieved. He also preached those who sinned and hurt his fellow man needed to be punished by death. To make sure others feared to commit said crime. And those who had been sacrificed would be forever trapped in Jashin's own level of hell. However because of the stereotype (Hidan didn't help) those who knew of it, feared it.

Once they finished praying Hidan blew out the candles and set the book back down, and walked out the room. "Man I feel like a million ryo every time I finish. Nothing in this world can beat a good praying session. Now come squirt we gotta start you on some elemental training, eh?"

Hidan and Naruto started off for the den and once inside, Hidan dug around in his front left pocket and then took something out. He held out a piece of paper saying, "Take this paper and charge chakra into it." Naruto took the paper and just looked at it for a moment and he heard Hidan say, "If you charge chakra into that slip of paper we will know what nature you are. If your lightning the paper crinkles, if your fire the paper burns, wind will slice it in half, earth crumbles it away, and water makes the paper get wet." Naruto closed his eyes and holds the paper between his index and middle finger focusing his chakra through the paper. A second later the paper splits down the middle.

Naruto opens his eyes and says, "So I'm a wind nature?" Hidan nods his head, "Seems like it." Hidan brings his hand to his chin and says, "I'm not going to teach you any jutsu until your body can handle the strain, until then I'm going to teach you to turn even a fucking butter knife into the sharpest weapon you could have." Hidan stops talking and thinks for a minute then begins speaking once more "Put your sandals back on and take your jacket as well. we'll start your training up the mountain." Naruto takes his hoodie that hangs on a rack that hangs on the wall to his left. He didn't wear it often, most missions Hidan took were out of country. So, he had no real reason to. But, when he trained or worked in Snow he had it just in case. Then he put on his sandals that Hidan had picked up for him, from the front of the temple. Probably to speed up the process.

Hidan walked out of the room with Naruto following behind him, the two went into the kitchen and packed a few days worth of food and placed it into a pack. Naruto grabbed a single kunai and put it into his ninja pouch. After they finished packing they left their home and headed for one of the many mountains Snow was know for.

* Top of the Mountain *

The air was thin up the mountain, but thanks to Naruto's training he was able to withstand the limited air up there. They stopped next to a small pond that was frozen over because of how cold it was up there, but they were mostly up there because there was no one up there to bother Naruto's training. Hidan had taken seven branches off of a few trees that had a lot of leaves on them. Hidan sat down and explained, "Okay this is how we will start." He tosses the pack off to the side and says, "Listen I don't expect you to pass this fuckin' training exercise quickly. In fact I don't think you'll get to the second phase until next year possibly." Naruto looks a little discouraged, but hears him say, "The reason I say this is because you're pretty young to begin such training, but if you master your element stages before Academy graduates then you'll have an enormous edge over the rest of those little shits." Hidan holds his hand out pointed to a rock across from him. Naruto gets the message and sits down crossing his legs. Hidan takes a single leaf off of one of the branches and hands it to Naruto telling him, "Take this leaf and hold it between both your hands…"

Naruto does as he's told and holds it between his hands so that it's directly between his palms. Hidan tells him next, "Now you're going to cut that leaf with just your chakra alone, once you've cut the leaf completely in half I will teach you the next step." Naruto nodded agreeing with Hidan and started to try and cut the leaf in half with his chakra.

Hidan took this moment and decided to get some rest, he walked away from Naruto and leaned against a rock to sleep. Naruto kept sending chakra into his hand and checked every other minute to see the results, but every time it was the same. Naruto looked at the leaf and thought, 'I will pass this stage before this month is up. I swear it!' Naruto closed his hands around the leaf again and started to try and cut the leaf in half again.

Hidan had his eye cracked a little as he watched Naruto train thinking, 'That was all the motivation the little shit needed. You'll pass the first stage, but not anytime soon.' Hidan closed his eyes again to enjoy the little peace he gets in life.

* Konoha: Hokage Tower *

Minato was sitting at his desk going over the mission with the four ninjas assigned to the mission, "Okay this is a B-Rank mission and you'll only be body 'll help with the tracking. If you cannot find anything that could lead you into the assassins trail then you are to immediately return back home." He looked at the ninjas before him. One was his son, the other was a young ninja wearing a light cream colored jacket with a high collar, brown short hair, a four foot gourd on his back, and black glasses. The second was a woman with fan-like tattoos on both of her cheeks, brown hair tied in a ponytail with bangs on each side of her face, a light green ninja vest, tight bike shorts, and light green wrist bands. The fourth and final was a man wearing the standard Jounin attire, his headband was made into a bandana that covered the top of his head, white pupil less eyes.

He continued by saying, "Now apparently the assassins killed the leader in his own tower in an underground training area reserved for him. One of the men were described to be around 5'8", silver hair, and posses a large bladed weapon. After they killed him they activated explosive notes that buried him deep underground, they seem to think that he either was killed before the tags went off or the tags were the cause of his death. Either way they want the assassins brought back dead or alive. Personally I don't understand why such a mission was asked, but I accepted this mission because of the alliance we have with them. Menma Namikaze, Hana Inuzuka, and Ko Hyūga, you will follow Hayashi Aburame as he will be the team leader on this mission." He paused for a moment asking them, "Do you all understand your mission?"

All of them said in unison, "Hai Hokage-sama!" Minato smiled and waved them off. Menma stayed behind however to ask, "Do you think there is any connection with Naruto there?" Minato looked at his son telling him, "To be honest this is the strongest clue we've had in eight years."

Menma was a little confused asking, "What do you mean dad?" Minato explained, "For the past few years there have been reports of a rogue-ninja going around, no one reports him because they all fear him and they dare not give up what he looks like or his name." Menma asked still confused, "What does that have to do with anything?" Minato continued by saying, "This particular shinobi always had an accomplice with him that I now believe to be a child. The two have been working for at least three years, but the strange thing is that eight years ago he went missing and didn't return to his stunts until three years ago and that's when his little friend started to be seen with him." Menma's eyes flared for a moment as he asked, "You think he had something to do with Naruto's kidnapping?"

Minato could see the look of anger in his eyes and said, "It is possible, that child may be Naruto, but there is that possibility that it's not. In any case I wanted you to check it out." Menma asked him next, "Do we have anything on the guy's name?" Minato shook his head, "No, he only gives his name apparently to high paying clients or those he deems worthy. We unfortunately don't know who any of them are. We don't have any leads on how to contact him."

His son immediately turned around walking to the door telling Minato, "I'll make sure to find out who this guy is and if he's connected with Naruto's kidnapping." Minato stopped him as he got to the door, "Remember your job as a ninja first. When you are given a mission you need to handle it as a ninja and put family affairs off to the side, capture him alive if possible if not then kill him."

Menma had his hand on the doorknob and he only nodded his head understanding. He opened the door and left the room to join up with his squad.

* Konoha East Gate *

Since the four were called by the Hokage they all immediately assumed it was for a mission so they had packed before hand. Joining along with the four were three Akita dogs with black/brown fur covering the top and cream color white on their underbellies. Hayashi like all his clansmen kept his sentences short and unemotional, "Hoshigakure is only a half days travel if we run. We'll get there and do our job as per orders. Anytime when we are relieved of duty you may move around the village freely. Though stay in Hoshigakure territory."

His teammates nodded agreeing with the squad captain. Hayashi told them all, "Now let's go." With no objections from the others they all ran out of the East gate heading to Hoshigakure, Menma had another thought on his mind all together, 'I'm getting closer to you Naruto. Just hang on a little while longer, aniki is coming!'

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 **Well that's chapter 3 for ya. I'm almost finished with 4 so expect that in a couple days.**

 **Also remember to leave reviews guys! It's a powerful motivator and helps me understand what you guys like. Anyways until next time!**


	4. Down Hill From Here

**I'm gonna address a question I've seen pop up! No Naruto isn't iimmortal like Hidan at the moment. Well anyways enjoy the chapter.**

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* Hoshigakure *

Team Hayashi made it to Hoshigakure on schedule and began their search for the assassin. Menma started off asking which direction the assassin headed and they were directed that the assassin and his accomplice headed south of the village. Hana and her dogs started off by looking for a scent, she told her team that it was there were a number of scents and that they were all faint. Ko said they should follow it since the village's ANBU was on the trail of whoever it was and that they might find a stronger scent should they follow it. Hayashi asked the current village leader Akahoshi for a few of the village's ANBU so they could find the culprits.

Akahoshi agreed and spared them three ANBU ninjas. Team Hayashi headed south following the scents of the ANBU and possibly the assassin, but the team still had their doubts since the scents were over a week old. Hana's hounds were more mature and their sense of smell was the greatest out of all the other dogs in her clan aside from her mother's dog Kuromaru. After awhile of running south one of the ANBU ninja told the group, "This is where we lost the trail and returned back to the village." The group came to a stop and the Inuzuka's got to work all of them including Hana put their noses to the ground looking for the separate scent. Ko activated his clan's kekkei genkai called the Byakugan, veins on the side of his head next to his eyes appeared and it allowed him to see great distances.

Ko began looking for any kind of mistakes the assassin could of made when he made his escape. Hayashi pulled out a map of the elemental nations and examined it, after awhile he pointed out, "There seems to be a few towns along this way. Though they wouldn't do much of a hideout." Ko found nothing in his search, either the assassin was very careful not to leave any kind of evidence or he summoned an animal or something to give him flight to avoid the ground, "I can't see any trace of anything to show what direction he went in. I doubt he was going to take the time to cover up his tracks and risk ANBU catching up to him."

Hana stood up straight telling all of them, "I can't pick up a clean scent, even if we follow it it will just disappear. If that map is correct then there is an ocean some ways from here and the salt in the air will interfere with the tracking, there is also that the air temperature is changing signaling that it will rain soon." Menma told the ANBU, "We can't do anything anymore. The trail will be wiped out before we get a good lead."

Hayashi asked the ANBU, "Is there anything you didn't tell us? Anything that could help us find the man who killed your leader?" The leading ANBU shook his head, "I'm sorry no. The only thing we have is that the village leader Akahoshi heard the explosion and went to investigate and found the tower completely destroyed and he saw the assassin pick up a smaller person. Though he was more concerned for the Hoshikage that he didn't bother to follow them. After a few more ninjas gathered he sent five ANBU in the direction we are now following."

Ko asked them, "Why didn't anyone hear the battle? I'm sure that since it's underground someone would've heard the battle sounds or even felt the tremors of the fight." Another one of the ANBU explained, "A number of reasons could be because our leader was so strong that his usual training days result in small tremors that the village feels and the sound one could be that either the kage himself erected it so as not to wake the village or the assassin did to avoid any ANBU coming to investigate."

Hayashi brought his hand to his chin, "No if it was the kage, then he would've dispelled the sound barrier to alert that he was under attack and I don't think the assassin would have enough time to erect one himself. Also his partner was seen outside the tower so whoever that was couldn't have put a barrier around the tower." Menma continued, "There are too many variables to take into account and piece them together. Either way this mission is a failure. I say we return to Hoshigakure." Not left with many other options they all headed back north toward Hoshigakure.

The team made it back to Hoshigakure and told the current village chief Akahoshi about what happened. Akahoshi was a little disappointed that nothing was found, but he still paid them for their mission. Menma asked the man, "Did you get a good look at who this assassin's assistant was?"

Akahoshi looked to Menma answering, "No I'm sorry, the only thing I could take notice of was his hair color and his height." Menma's eye's widened 'Hair color!' He looked Akahoshi in the eyes and asked "What color was his hair?". Akahoshi gave him a questioning look, but then thought to himself 'I could use this, if I can give them a little piece about Hidan and that boy then Konoha will hunt them down...eliminating the problem for me.'. Akahoshi acted like he was thinking and said, "Well he had red hair, and if memory servers me right he also had blue eye's. But, I'm not positive. Also Come to think of it...one of our ANBU had a mission with a man that fits the killers looks. Well his weapon, hair color, and height anyways."

Menma lit up a little, "Where can I find this ninja?" Akahoshi thought next, 'Got'cha', "Unfortunately he died three months ago, but then I was with the Hoshikage as his advisor when giving out missions. He was supposed to rendezvous with the possible killer and a man giving out the mission at the black market in the Land of Bears." Hayashi asked Akahoshi, "Why would you and your kage allow such a mission?"

He explained to the Aburame, "It was to get closer to the man assigning the mission. We had reason to believe that the man was on our hit list in the Bingo Book, but it turns out that the man called off the mission at the last minute and he said he didn't see either of the targets." Menma said, "Do you know who the man who knows what this mysterious figure looks like?"

Akahoshi again remembered the man who told him about Hidan and said, "Yes a man in his late thirties early forties, about 5'6, black short hair with a little grays, and a handlebar mustache. If I remember correctly our nin said that he handed out jobs in a bar called 'Red Dawn'." The group took in every word that came from Akahoshi's mouth and put them to memory. Akahoshi bowed saying to the group, "I hope this information helps you." Menma grinned and started walking off saying out loud, "More than you could ever know." The rest of the group followed after Menma after bowing politely to the man. After they were out of sight Yotaka walked out from the shadows watching the Konoha nins walk off asking his leader, "Do you think they could kill that man?" Akahoshi responded, "I could care less, whether they can or not isn't any of our concern. Forget about it, let's have the funeral arrangements for the old man and then we'll continue with the star training. Let's go." The two Hoshi shinobi walked back to oversee the repairs of the Hoshikage tower.

* Outside Hoshigakure *

Hayashi asked Menma what he intended to do with this information, he like many ninjas in Konoha know about Naruto's kidnapping and of Hidan combing through the elemental lands to look for his long lost brother. Menma simply told his team, "I'm going to the Land of Bears to find that man. He knows this mysterious figure and this person has some kind of connection to my brother's kidnapping and I'm gonna find out what it is." He started to walk off, but stopped to tell the others, "You guys can go back to Konoha if you want, but I'm heading to the Land of Bears to find that man who knows about this mysterious person." After he said that he continued walking leaving the team behind. The three Leaf nins looked at one another before following after Menma.

Menma heard footsteps behind him, looking back he saw Ko, Hayashi, Hana and her ninken following behind, he smiled and happily said to them, "Thanks for accompanying me everyone." Hana gave him a small smile, "Well can't just let you go off by yourself." Hayashi said to his team, "Well let's hurry up and get to Bear country." The group nodded and they all started dashing for the Land of Bears.

* The Next Day: Land of Bears *

The group disguised themselves as ordinary citizens and Hana had her ninken follow a bit behind so that the dogs look like strays. They were able to get into the underground catacombs that had the black market, rogue ninjas came together and set this all up and none of the ninja nations attempted to bring a stop to it since rogue nins always come through here it was always a breeze to find them. Infiltrating can be easy if you know how. The four ninjas waded through rogue ninjas, thieves, and other kinds of criminals. Ko activated his byakugan under a mask he was currently wearing searching for the bar. The four moved to the side to allow Ko to find it.

"Found it." said Ko, he stood up and made a hand motion for them to follow him. They followed Ko through the large crowds and they made it to a small building that had a red sphere on a sign with the words 'Red Dawn' written in kanji. Hayashi told his group, "Hana, Ko head around back and incase he tries to escape, Hana use your ninken to keep an eye on the front of the building, Ko keep your byakugan activated as well." Ko and Hana nodded as she made a low growl that her ninken picked up that were waiting around the corner. The three hounds walked from around the building and laid down in a group diagonally with the building. Ko and Hana then casually went around the building and to the back.

Hayashi said to Menma, "Let's go." Menma nodded and as they entered Hayashi added, "I'll let you do the talking." Upon pushing the doors open the smell of smoke, alcohol, piss, and many other assorted smells assaulted their senses. It would've made an ordinary man toss up his lunch. The two remained in the doorway and saw that the entire bar full of people stopped what they were doing and all focused on them. Menma and Hayashi ignored the glares they were getting and moved roughly through the crowd. They scanned through all the gruff and dangerous looking men and even a few women. Menma found who they were looking for and he slightly moved his foot to tap Hayashi. The Aburame glanced at Menma and saw him make an eye movement to a section of the bar. Hayashi looked in the direction and saw the man with the handlebar mustache. He also had some strange pendant around his neck.

Menma moved first and started walking over to the man's table who sat alone. Hayashi stayed behind at the bar to keep watch.

The man looked up and saw Menma stop at his table, "Whaddya want kid?" he said with a deep voice. Menma sat down at the table without the man asking him, "I need some info about someone you might know. My name is Kaze." Menma gave him a fake name so he's not identified. The man cocked an eyebrow at Menma saying, "You got balls kid to think you can sit at my table without my consent. Get the fuck out of here." Menma reached into his pocket and and laid down some money. The man eyed the money and asked, "Names Kahn, so what do you wanna know kid?"

Menma slid the money over to him, "I'll give you more if I like the info. I wanna know about a particular man. I don't have his name, but he's said to posses a giant weapon and has silver hair." Kahn looked a little amazed 'No...he couldn't be asking for Hidan-sama.' he quickly shoved the money back at Menma, "Get lost kid I don't know nothing." Menma insisted by telling him, "I have a mission to meet the man, but I'm limited on info and you're the only one I can find information on him."

Kahn gave Menma a hateful look and spoke raising his voice a little, "I said get LOST." Menma returned his words a little more lower with venom lacing his voice, "Listen, you will tell me what I need to know about this man otherwise I'll get the info out of you by force. Now what will it be?" Kahn chuckled and said, "Big mistake boy." He rose his hand and snapped his fingers. Soon the men in the bar jumped out of their seats and rushed Menma.

The young Leaf nin was not intimidated and merely dropped his henge and two kunais shot out of his shirt sleeves and into his hands, Hayashi also dropped his henge and unleashed all of his insects. Ko and Hana busted through the back and leapt into the battle and Hana's ninken jumped through the windows and attacked a few people as well.

The little bar room battle ended five minutes later with the Leaf nins completely unhurt, but as for everyone else it was either injured or dead. Kahn was laying on the floor unconscious during the struggle to escape. Hana sighed saying, "So I'm guessing the diplomatic solution was a bust?" Menma smiled and said, "Well it still was politics, we had the 'yes' sayers and we had the 'nay' sayers." Ko couldn't help but chuckle at that, "Well we got our target. Now I say we get out of here before someone comes and checks this place out."

Hayashi agreed and retracted his bugs from a few people in the bar. He then walked over to the downed Kahn and tied him up with one of the bar brawler's jackets and tossed him over his shoulder, "Now let's go." said Hayashi. The team nodded and they darted out of the bar as quickly as they could and made it out of the underground black market.

* Land of Snow*

Naruto was inspecting his leaf and found a little nick in the leaf, but that was only if you really inspected it, he soon placed the leaf back into the palm of his hand and began to try and cut the leaf in half with his chakra. Hidan left and was down the mountain cooking their dinner, cooking a few rabbits he caught roaming around the forest and he caught a few fish from a river stream that wasn't to far away from where he was. He looked up at the sky and and saw that the moon was coming out a little bit and decided it was time to get Naruto for dinner. Hidan Made a sign and an identical clone of himself formed. "Go grab that little shit and tell him dinner's almost ready." The clone said "Ya, whatever." while walking away towards Naruto's location.

As he waited for his clone to get Naruto he leaned up against a tee and just relaxed, but that was short lived as he turned his head to the side after he sensed someone close by. He got up slowly, and took his scythe in hand. preparing himself, he called out, "Who's out there? You best show yourself." Not soon after a woman appeared and the campfire illuminated her so he couldn't make out her features.

The woman stood at about 5'5", not much shorter than him, she was wearing a black cloak with red clouds on them, and a flower was positioned on the top of her head. A second man walked out soon after, he was much taller than Hidan and was wearing the same cloak as the woman. But, unlike her had a strange mask that only showed his weird green and red eye's, also it had a slashed Taki plate on it.

The woman spoke first, "You're Hidan are you not?" Hidan wasn't fazed that the man knew his name, but was a little concerned that someone actually found him, "Who the fuck wants to know?" answered Hidan in a irritated tone. The taller man decided to speak and said, "We've been looking for you for quite some time. We got info on you from a guy in the Land of Bears at least a week ago. You're not an easy man to track down."

Hidan narrowed his eyes at the man and clenched his weapon tighter, "listen assholes I don't know who you are, but if you don't leave I'll be sending Jashin-sama another sacrifice. " said Hidan with venom laced in his voice. The man smirked and took a step forward, but was stopped by the girl "We didn't come here for a fight Hidan-san." Hidan gave the woman a questioning look and yelled "Then what the fuck did come here for?"

"We came to talk." came a third voice from the forest.

Hidan turned his attention to the forest where a third man walked out. This man had orange hair that spiked up, piercings in his nose, bottom lip, and ears, the same black cloak, but his eyes had a ripple like pattern in them. Hidan could feel something unnatural coming off of him 'I can't take them all on as is, if push comes to shove I'll grab the squirt and make a run for it.' The strange man took a step forward and said, "I have a proposition for you that you might like."

* Ten Minutes Later *

Naruto was riding on the back of Hidan's clone as the two made their way down the mountain. Naruto however brought the leaf with him and kept trying to cut it in half with his chakra, but nothing really happened. They finally reached the camp when Naruto saw three people talking with Hidan, he leapt off of the clone which then popped out of existence and ran over to Hidan and grabbed hold of his leg and hid behind him. peeking out to look at the men and woman who were now looking at him. The man with the orange hair looked from Naruto to Hidan saying, "If your answer is yes, then meet us in the Land of the Demons within this month's end. We don't keep our hideouts for long." The man turned around and walked off with the woman and tall man following behind him.

Once they left Naruto looked up at Hidan and asked, "Dad? Who were those guys?" Hidan didn't say anything at first, still looking into the direction the men disappeared in and he told Naruto, "Listen Naruto. I'm going to go see one of our brothers by myself, I want you to remain in the fucking house at all times, don't open the door for nobody and just stay put. Take some leafs inside and continue your training. Do you understand?"

Naruto nodded and Hidan picked him up. He made a clone who he ordered to pick up their food. Once the clone was finished He kicked some dirt on the fire and then ran for their home, clone in tow. When he got to the house he unlocked the door with the seal and set Naruto inside with his clone. He kept his hand on the door and told him, "Leave the entire house dark, I don't want anyone to know that you are here. Don't even open the blinds. I'll be back before this week ends, I promise."

Naruto nodded and Hidan walked over to a tree and pulled a branch off covered in leaves and handed it to Naruto, he took one last glance at Naruto and patted him on the head and closed the door activating the seal. Hidan then made his way quickly for the docks.

* Three Days Later: Land of Bears *

Hidan made it inside the underground black market and immediately headed for the Red Dawn bar. He began knocking people over as he walked ignoring their rants for him to watch where he was going. He turned the final corner to the bar and saw that the windows were broken, walking inside he saw that the bar was partially destroyed and a few of the men had bruises and other kind of injuries. Once the men saw Hidan they immediately shrunk down trying to avoid looking at him. Hidan walked over to the bar and asked the bartender, "Where is brother Kahn?"

The bartender poured Hidan a drink and said, "Some Konoha ninjas busted in here and arrested the guy. It wasn't difficult to tell who they were. The most noticeable was the guy with blonde hair and blue eyes, then there was a chick wit three dogs, another wit white eyes, and the final one was a tall guy with a gourd on his back and a lot of insects. So we had a Inuzuka, an Aburame, and a Hyuuga bust up my place. The blonde hair though, he looked familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on it."

Hidan shot out of his seat and pulled the man over the bar and table and demanded, "What the fuck did they ask him!?" The bar owner was now scared shitless and stuttered, "They… was…. asking… 'bout… you… Hidan…." Hidan pushed the man back causing him to hit his back to his shelf that had many different kinds of alcohol. He ran out of the bar knocking the door down in the process.

He ran out of the underground market and up top and headed back for home thinking, 'Blonde hair? Could it have been Menma Namikaze? Shit if they have Kahn then they could link him together with my other fucking contacts! I need to get Naruto and we need to get to the Land of Demons now! Jashin-sama give me strength!' Hidan kept running to quickly get to Naruto before someone else could.

* Konoha: Same Time *

Minato was standing in the ANBU interrogation wing with his son standing next to him on his right and his wife to his left. watching two ninjas interrogate the man named Kahn. The first man was large with an imposing figure with two distinct scars on his face, large black coat, and a gray militant outfit. The second man had long platinum blonde that's tied in a high ponytail, a long red vest with a green ninja vest underneath, tan colored arm guards, and a black ninja outfit.

The three watched the interrogation from another room through a glass window. After some time both the men stepped out and Minato walked over to them asking, "Inoichi, Ibiki, what did you find?" The more larger man named Ibiki spoke, "I found out that the guy waits for this mysterious person to contact him and as it turns out his real name is Hidan of Yugakure."

Both Menma and Minato gave Ibiki a question look. Minato put his hand to his chin and said "Hidan? I haven't heard of him before." Ibiki nodded "That wouldn't be a surprise Hokage-sama, the last mention of Hidan was before the second great war in the bingo book. It was said the village's ANBU unit got to him. Obviously that wasn't the case. From what I saw going through his furthest memories was that he received a kidnapping order eight years ago, but I can't tell who it was who issued it. The memory is a little fuzzy, but he was to meet up with the kidnappers and deliver Naruto to whoever it was." Ibiki sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose, but continued speaking. "But, as I said the memory is a little fuzzy to make out. If you can get me a sketch artist I can give you a detailed description of what Hidan looks like. Unfortunately back then when they issued these, they didn't have pictures of the offenders."

Minato looked to the entrance of the room to the ANBU standing guard making a head nod for him to go find one. The ANBU agreed and quickly left. Kushina stepped forward to both men asking, "Is there anything else?" Ibiki smiled and said, "Matter of fact there is Kushina-sama, as it turns out whenever Hidan went to speak with this guy there was always a little kid with him. Inoichi found out also that Kahn asked Hidan about his departure from mercenary work and some sort of religious get togethers. He was told that he went into hiding to teach the kid how to become a ninja. He asked him what the kid's name was, but Hidan wouldn't say. However the boy looked just like you."

Menma's eyes sparked with intensity as he said, "Then there's no doubt about it, with this kind of evidence it's clear that Hidan still has Naruto." Minato was a little relieved that they found something more, he looked over to Kushina and saw her crying tears of joy. "Surely he must know of some more people who know Hidan. If we can find that out then we can squeeze Hidan into a position where he will get desperate and he'll eventually slip up." said Minato.

Inoichi nodded telling him, "As it turns out Hokage-sama there are two other men who might know of Hidan, like Kahn they have their fingers in every kind of good information. One man lives in the Land of Meadows and the other lives close to the border of our country, the one in Meadows is named Ryosuke and the other is named Kei." Minato smiled and told Inoichi, "I'm heading to the tower to get the missions started, I need you to give the accurate description to the artist of Hidan, Ryosuke, and Kei and then meet me in my office Inoichi." Minato started heading for the door and both Ibiki and Inoichi saluted the kage and both the other Namikazes. Kushina thanked them for their hard work and left following her husband with Menma following next to her.

Menma was very happy that they would soon have Naruto back again, but he wasn't as happy as his mother was. He looked at her and felt an aura of happiness and relief radiating off of her, the smile she had on couldn't be matched and she was still crying tears of joy at the news. Minato was excited, eight long years and he would finally get to see his son. Not once had he seen Naruto since he was on the frontline of the Kyuubi attack and didn't have time to come see him, he had sent for an ANBU to fetch his daughter for the sealing, but when returning to see his son he was gone. Now he finally would after eight long years.

* A Few Hours Later: Land of Snow*

Naruto had lit some candles and was sitting in the living room holding the leaf between his hands trying to cut the leaf in half. He kept trying and trying, stopping for a moment he thought back to all the books and scrolls he was reading a long time ago. When it hit him that he did read a book about elements and how the book gave a tip about wind element and how it's the best as in a short to mid range fight and it can sharpen any weapon by adding your nature to it. Naruto remembered also that you have to cut your chakra in half and grind the two together sharpening them and making the points thin, the thinner and sharper it is the better it is. Naruto tossed the leaf with the small nicks in it off to the side and grabbed a new one from the branch Hidan gave him.

He sat down in a meditating position thinking sharp and thin. He held the leaf in his hands and began forcing chakra into his hands and then he felt something, he opened his hands up and looked at the leaf, though at most points kids would be jumping for joy, but Naruto looked at the leaf as if it was plain and saw a gash in the leaf that cut almost halfway into it. Naruto tossed the leaf to the side and grabbed another, but as he reached out for the leaf he felt extremely tired and collapsed. Passing out from exhaustion.

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 **Well that's it for the moment fella's, hope y'all enjoyed the chapter! I'm already starting on the next one, so y'all won't have to wait too long. Don't forget to review! Until next time guys!**


	5. On the Run

**Well fella's I gotta say thanks! We hit over a hundred followers last chapter! Man it feels nice to see that. When y'all finish this chapter I have a little surprise for ya ;). Anyways enjoy the chapter!**

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* An hour before dark: Konoha: Hokage Tower

Minato was sitting at his desk memorizing the sketches done by the villages well known sketch artist. Kushina was also in the office along with a few other ninjas. Minato held up the three pictures to the ninjas in front of him saying, "These three are who you will be looking for." Minato holds up one picture at a time next, after holding up the first one to them he says, "This man's name is Ryosuke he lives in the Land of Meadows in a run down inn." The man named Ryosuke was an elderly man somewhere in his fifties, bald head, a long gray beard, and a scar on the top of his head.

Minato then held up the next picture, "This man is named Kei. From what Inoichi gathered was this man lives on the border between Konoha and Amegakure in fairly large town called Rabun." The man called Kei was at least thirty years of age, black hair, a broad jaw line, dark blue eyes, and earrings in both ears. Finally Minato held up the last picture of Hidan with his tri-bladed scythe and silver slicked back hair saying,"This is the man we are looking for. Earlier today I sent a squadron over to Yugakure since this man apparently hails from there judging by his headband seen by Inoichi going through our prisoners mind. As far as we know percentage wise there is a 90% chance that he either kidnapped my son himself or got ahold of him somewhere along the line."

He set the pictures on his desk saying, "The main thing is this. I'm giving your squads an Inoichi and a Hyuuga to conduct your search, so here it is find these men, interrogate them to see if you can find any information about Hidan especially his location. Once you find that out I'll need you to send a message back to us and I'll send reinforcements for you to capture him. Am I understood?"

The ninjas called in the room where Kakashi still wearing his ANBU uniform,Menma, Hana and her ninken, and Ko. Among them where another Hyuuga named Takuma and two Yamanaka clan members named Gin and Hyo, and the final one was a young woman with purple hair, a brown coat jacket, a fishnet shirt underneath, a short skirt, and shin guards named Anko.

The eight ninjas walked over to the Hokage's desk and looked at the three pictures so that their faces were etched into their minds. Once that was done Minato told them, "Kakashi, Menma, Gin, and Ko will take Kei here in Fire country with Kakashi as squad leader. Anko, Hana, Hyo and Takuma will take Ryosuke in Meadow country with Anko as squad leader. As I said before I don't want any of you to attack or come into contact with Hidan by yourselves. Alert Konoha and I will send reinforcements. Got it?"

All of them said in unison, "Hai Hokage-sama!"

Minato smiled and told all of them, "Good, you all leave in an hour before you leave. Team Kakashi will meet at the west gate and Team Anko will meet at the south gate. If either one of you completes your mission first I want you to rendezvous with the other squad and exchange info by going to where the other squad is." Minato rolled out a map and pointed a line from Meadows to the town Rabun saying, "Make sure to take this path so in the case that you run into each other. Now you are all dismissed." The eight ninjas bowed and then left the room to get packed up for their missions.

Kushina moved from the couch that was off to the side of the room to standing behind her husband hugging him with her chin resting on his shoulder saying, "Your doing an excellent job as Hokage. Sarutobi would be proud of you." Minato leaned his head back and kissed Kushina on her cheek the best he could saying, "Thanks for saying that."

There was a knock at his door and he immediately called out, "Come in please." The door opened up revealing his secretary. She walked over to his desk and gave a polite bow to both the Namikazes saying, "The backup squads you've requested are on the waiting list as per your orders. Asuma Sarutobi, Kurenai Yuhi, Might Guy, and Ebisu Tobita are all awaiting your approval to go on the mission as well as the six ANBU ninjas you've requested."

Minato thanked her. Kushina saw that the woman looked a little unsure about something and she asked her, "Is there anything else?" The woman looked up and at Kushina and pulled out a slip of paper and handed it to her saying, "This came from Tsunade-sama today." Kushina took the paper and read through it. After she was done reading it she asked the secretary to leave. The secretary bowed and politely left the room.

Minato looked at Kushina and saw the saddened look in her eyes and asked, "You okay?" Kushina crumbled up the piece of paper and threw it away saying, "That woman… I'll never understand her, she doesn't try and contact me for two years and then she finally sends me a letter now… When I needed her support the most she ended up running off with Shizune." Minato pulled her into his lap and started stroking her hair trying to comfort her, "She just wants to make amends. If not for herself then she is probably trying for Shizune. I don't think Tsunade would want to come home if she knew that you hated her. The only people in this world who still mean anything to her are you, me, Shizune, and Jiraiya. I don't think she could stand it if any of you three hated her."

Kushina buried her face more into his chest and kept mumbling something, which only caused Minato to chuckle as he thought, 'She acts more like a child, but I still love her.' The happy moment was interrupted when Minato said, "Someone is here." Kushina got up from his lap and looked at the window and saw Itachi standing there with his ANBU attire on. Minato stood up from his chair and walked over to the window opening it allowing him to enter. Itachi bowed and said, "I apologize Hokage-sama for interrupting you in this fashion." Minato shrugged it off and asked, "It's no problem Itachi-san. What do you got?"

Itachi stood up and said, "The Uchiha clan is planning a coup."

* Land of Meadows: Team Anko *

The four man cell was currently inside the run down inn inside the back room. The Yamanaka Hyo had three scrolls spread out in a triangular pattern with Ryosuke sitting in the center and Hyo's hand was on the man's head going through his mind. Takuma and Anko had interrogated the man by asking a series of questions and for everyone he got wrong Anko would torture the man. It came down to where they were able to pinpoint the way he acted in their favor which allowed Hyo to enter his mind without fail.

Anko looked over to Hana asking, "How's the perimeter?" Hana took a good sniff and said, "I don't smell anyone nearby and my ninken have the area surrounded and will alert me if anyone is near, but other than that the area is clear." Anko nodded her head and continued watching Hyo go to work. A full fifteen minutes later he took his hand off of Ryosuke's head and was really exhausted, but he told them, "He doesn't know Hidan's exact location, only that he first met him on the coast of Iron country about three years back."

Anko immediately told her team, "Alright let's go to the town Team Kakashi is in and we will exchange info." The team nodded and they rolled up what they were doing and Hyo picked the man up and took him with them.

* Rabun Town: Team Kakashi *

Kakashi's squad a little more of fight to handle with this guy. The man was apparently a ninja with a large group of followers in this town, though Kakashi and his team dispatched them very quickly and easily. Gin was doing the same ritual as Hyo was doing with the scrolls and the mind reading. Kakashi had summoned some ninken and had them stay put outside a now destroyed bar. Menma was also watching over the ritual along with Ko.

Gin finally stopped ten minutes in sweating and panting heavily saying, "How does Inoichi-sama do this?" Kakashi walked over to his comrade and helped him to his feet asking, "What did you see?" Gin took a few good deep breaths and told him, "I saw snowy mountains, a festival, and some sort of temple." Menma asked him, "Is there anything else?" Gin put his hand up to let everyone know he need to catch a breath and he said, "I saw Hidan and the kid, but I also saw an island with ninjas wearing the Yukigakure headband."

Ko then said, "So do you know if he lives there or was he just passing through?" Gin was caught up on his breathing and said clearly, "That I don't know, but it's our best bet." Kakashi and Menma looked at each other and Kakashi said, "We'll take Kei with us and see if we can meet up with Anko and her team. After we put together whatever we have with theirs then we can make a better assessment from this info."

Everyone agreed and they packed up what they brought and left heading to meet with Anko's team.

* Twelve Hours Later: Land of Fire *

Anko and her team kept running at a slower pace than they should since they needed to stop so Hyo could catch his breath every now and then, there was also the problem with the prisoner mouthing off to them every chance he got which some words that pissed Anko off. They kept going down a path and were approaching a Land of Fire landmark which was of a giant red statue of a fire.

Takuma had the trademark byakugan activated and saw the statue telling Anko, "Taichou! I can see Kakashi's team up ahead!" Anko told them, "Okay guys let's pick up the pace a little."

Kakashi and the others were sitting at the statue awaiting Anko and the others. Ko saw them with his byakugan as well and told his team, "They are here." Kakashi was leaned up against the statue reading an orange book, he put it away and saw Anko and her team jump down in front of them. Hyo tossed the old man Ryosuke off of his shoulders and in front of Kakashi saying, "It was a pain in the ass to get here."

Menma walked over to the group and asked, "What did you find?"

* Ten Minutes Later *

Both teams exchanged information that they acquired from the two men and were a bit pleased with the results. Kakashi summarized, "Since both men saw Hidan in what would appears to be the Land of Snow, then it's either Hidan makes a regular appearance there, he goes there to meet his informants, lives there, or he likes the horrible weather." Hyo added, "Only twice have I seen Hidan in this guy's memories that he would make a journey to meet him on the coast. Also where they meet is a close proximity where the ferries take travelers to the island."

Gin was thinking and said, "It would seem that Kei also meets him somewhere near the coast, but he went to the island for a little vacation and ran into Hidan by mistake. This can't be a coincidence, Hidan lives in Yukigakure." Menma looked to Kakashi and asked, "Will we alert the Hokage?" Kakashi continued listening to what the two Yamanaka's said and came to the same conclusion. He did a few handsigns and slammed his hand on the ground, a small pop of smoke appeared and a small dark brown pug appeared wearing a blue vest and a konoha headband. The little pug asked in a deep gruff voice, "Kakashi what do you need this time?" Kakashi kneeled down and told the little pug named Pakkun, "I need you to give Konoha the message that Teams Kakashi and Anko have discovered a possible location of Hidan. Tell the Hokage that we have enough evidence to prove that Hidan is in Yukigakure and that he'll need to send approval to Yukigakure to allow us entry to capture him."

Pakkun nodded and said, "Alright where should I have the squad that comes for reinforcements come meet you?" Kakashi told Pakkun, "In this location. Got it?" Pakkun lifts his paw and says, "No problem." Immediately the pug jetted off at amazing speeds kicking a giant gust of dirt into the air. Ko asks Kakashi, "What will we do with Kei and Ryosuke?" Kakashi looks from Ko to Menma and gives him a simple head nod. Menma understood and did a few handsigns and slammed his hand into the ground and like Kakashi a pop of smoke appeared by his hand. Out of the smoke popped a tiny green frog with two orange stripe patterns on it's back, Menma tells the frog, "I need you to take these two men to my father as soon as possible."

The hand sized frog hops over to the two men and it flicks it's tongue out at one man and wraps it's appendage completely around the man and sucks the man into it's small mouth somehow. After it swallows the first man it looks to the second and does the same thing to him that it did to the other, soon after swallowing both men it disappears into the same puff of smoke it appeared in.

Kakashi tells everyone, "Okay now we will await the reinforcements here. Most likely it will take a day before they arrive, so we will set up camp a little ways off from this statue." No one objected and they followed Kakashi to a more suitable location to await their back up.

* Three Hours Later: Konoha *

Minato was going through a few files with dread filling how his evening was turning out and the surprising information Itachi brought to his attention. As he was going through a the last file a knock at his door caught his attention, "Enter." said the Hokage. The door opened up showing his secretary holding an all too familiar dog. Minato looked to his secretary and said, "You can leave him I can handle it from here." His secretary nodded and placed the little dog on the floor and left the room. Minato walked around his desk to look at the dog asking, "So Pakkun what did Kakashi and the others discover?" Pakkun looked a little out of breath as he said, "Kakashi wanted me to tell you that they found a possible location of Hidan in Yukigakure and he is requesting the squad you have for them and to send a message ahead to Yukigakure to let them move in."

Minato nodded and told him, "I was expecting you for awhile now. Not to long ago one of my toads came to me and brought with it some prisoners. Well Pakkun where are they?" Pakkun told Minato, "They are at the statue landmark for Fire country. Know where it's at?" Minato nodded and said, "Alright Pakkun your excused, I'll send the information and the reinforcements. Also tell them to go through Iron country. Iwa would never let us into their lands." Pakkun nodded and disappeared in a puff of smoke leaving Minato in his office who immediately got to work on setting up the reinforcements and the parley to Yukigakure and Land of Iron.

* The Next Day: Land of Fire Landmark *

Kakashi and the other ninjas were awaiting their reinforcements after the day passed. Takuma was keeping watch with his byakugan activated and kept a close eye out for their team, he soon spotted them and alerted the others. The eight man squad and the three ninken moved out to go meet the reinforcements. Kakashi and the others made it to the landmark and looked down the dirt path and saw the four man cell from Konoha and six ANBU ninjas behind them.

There were three men and a woman running to meet them. The first man had black hair in a bowl style haircut, bushy eyebrows, a bright green jumpsuit, a red headband tied around his waist, a green jounin vest, and orange leg warmers. The second man had brown eyes, short spiky black hair and beard, the standard Konoha uniform, a sash with the kanji for the word 'Fire' around his waist, a headband around his forehead, and two bracelets one on each wrist.

The third and final man had his headband converted into a bandana that covered the whole top of his head, black circle sunglasses, blue long sleeve ninja shirt with red swirls on the shoulders, and blue ninja pants. The woman in the group had deep red eyes, long black curly hair, blue eyeshadow makeup, a deep red ninja sleeve less shirt, with a jounin vest over that, deep red ninja pants, arm wraps around her forearm, and a ninja headband around her forehead.

When the team met up with Kakashi and the others the bushy browed man shouted, "Kakashi! My old friend where do we go from here?" Kakashi said to him, "Good of you to make it Guy." Kakashi's eyes drifted to the man with the bandana and said, "Hey there Ebisu."

Ebisu adjusted his glasses and said, "Hello to you to Kakashi-san."

Anko moved next to the kunoichi who arrived and lightly elbowed the woman in her waist teasing her a little, "Oi Kurenai-chan, did you get any alone time with Asuma over there?" Kurenai looked to the bearded man ignoring Anko a little saying, "You're hopeless Anko." Menma broke up the little chit chat between everyone saying to Kakashi, "When do we leave Kakashi? This is an important matter and we are just wasting time when we could be moving."

Everyone looked at Menma and how serious his tone was. Kakashi said to everyone, "Menma has a point. We are about a 3 day trip away from the coast where the ferry takes passengers to Yukigakure out of the Land of Iron, added that we do not know when the ferries run so let's move out." Everyone nodded and the all dashed off to the coast trying to catch the man named Hidan.

* Two ½ days Later: Port Town - Land of Iron*

The Konoha ninjas made it to the town that ferries people from the numerous islands around the continent and even taking cruises along the coast line all the way to Kiri. The large squadron met up with a Snow shinobi who was awaiting their arrival from the letter they received from Minato many hours ago, the ninja chief was going to allow this and even set up a team of shinobi that recognized Hidan's location. This was to make that he did in fact make it to his temple. The large squad took a private boat that only Snow shinobi were allowed to take for faster usage. The boat was large enough to take the large squad to the island. As everyone was standing around waiting to reach the island Menma and Hana were standing away from everyone else. The young kunoichi would steal a glance at him every chance she would get.

This didn't go unnoticed by the young ninja as he smiled at how she thought she was going unnoticed. Kakashi was being badgered by his 'rival' about being asked to challenge him to a battle, Anko and Kurenai were at the front of the ship talking, Ko and Takuma were on the captain's deck relaxing for a moment. The ANBU were down below waiting as well. Asuma took to the starboard side smoking a cigarette with Ebisu telling him how bad that was for his health, and finally the two Yamanaka's were sitting near the back of the boat with Hana's ninken complaining about the weather.

The Snow shinobi was steering the boat. Takuma had his byakugan activated and was just looking below the ocean out of boredom.

The Snow shinobi announced to everyone, "We are approaching the island." All the leaf nins save for the ANBU, looked over the sides of the boat and could see the island. Menma smiled, eager to land on the snowy island ahead. A few minutes later the boat docked and the Konoha ninjas jumped off of the boat and were greeted by a few Snow nins. One of them said, "The boat that docked about an hour and a half ago was carrying the passenger you were looking for. Your kage sent us a picture along with the request that you apprehend him."

Kakashi asked the man, "How many men do you have trailing him?" The Snow ninja started walking away and made a hand motion for them to follow. " We got 2 squads up there as we speak, we didn't want to take any chances against a S-ranked criminal." He stopped and turned to the Konoha ninjas and spoke loudly to make sure everyone heard him clearly. "We'll have to run and catch up to them. Is everyone ready? Once we get outside Yuki, navigation becomes a bit of a pain in the ass." The Konoha ninjas nodded and followed the Snow nins. Both parties starting to pick up speed.

*Hour ½ later*

Once they arrived at their destination both parties stopped. Immediately a couple of snow ninja appeared and instructed Kakashi that Hidan was seen going in there. Kakashi told his team to spread out. When they did they saw a few Yuki ANBU hiding. Hana, Ko, and Menma were with Kakashi. The kunoichi told Kakashi in a low voice, "I can smell his scent going in the temple."  
Ko squinted his eyes and said to Kakashi, "There is a powerful genjutsu surrounding the temple. I can't see inside, but I can recognize this type, if you disable it then it will alert the caster, it also seems to be set up to a seal of the front door."

Kakashi nodded to both Ko and Hana and he made a few hand movements for the ANBU to come in. Four of the ANBU from Konoha moved quietly to the front of the home along with three Snow ANBU. Kakashi and the leading commander for the Snow nins moved closer as well, but they distanced themselves. After a minute Kakashi made a final hand signal. The Konoha ninja agreed and kicked down the door, the door went down and the Four leaf ANBU rushed in along with the three Snow ANBU.

Once the door went down Ko saw something and shouted, "EVERYONE RUN!" Immediately after he said that the house erupted into an explosion followed by a series of explosions around the house. Kakashi started to run as did the other nins, but the explosions were taking out a chunk of the cliff area causing a few of the ninjas to lose their footing and fall off. A few more explosions went off and Kakashi, another ANBU, and Hana lost their footing as the ground collapse from under them.

One of the ANBU nins looked and saw them fall and so did Menma. The blonde nin turned around and jumped off of the cliff to where Hana was, the ANBU on the other hand closed his hands together and shouted, "Wood Style!" Wooden tentacles came out of the cliff and wrapped around Kakashi before he was halfway down the cliff. Kakashi gave him a thumbs up for the save, but he couldn't save his fellow ANBU comrade who fell to his death.

Meanwhile Menma was able to dive after Hana, he grabbed her by her arm and held onto her tight. He spun around and pulled out a tri-pronged kunai, tossing it with all his might straight up in the air. The kunai went up at least seven feet above the cliff wall and the two ninjas disappeared and reappeared approve the cliff. Menma reached out and grabbed the cliff top. Anko and Ebisu rushed over to help the two ninjas up.

The ANBU nin made his wooden jutsu pull Kakashi safely up. Once everyone was safe they retreated farther away so as not to risk the chance of another set of explosions. After everyone caught their breath more Snow nins appeared to see what happened. Ko walked over to Kakashi and said, "The moment they kicked the door down the genjutsu broke, but once it did the seal activated the explosive tags set in and around the house."

Menma quickly asked, "Did you see anyone in the house?" Ko shook his head, "Even as the explosions were going off the only bodies I could see were the ANBU that went in. I didn't see anyone else." Menma breathed a sigh of both relief and frustration. Asuma was with them and said, "Quite possibly he set up the trap knowing he was followed." He pulled out another cigarette and lit it saying, "He probably descended down the cliff edge and made it around that way."

One Snow nin interjected, "That's impossible. The waves that come in from that side of the island are vicious, the walls are always extremely wet, the winds are savagely strong and you can't walk on the water since the waves are too strong and will smash you against the cliffs. You can't even post a boat on that side of the island let alone swing past that area. Not to mention the temperature of the water, it would kill you in less than a minute."

Kakashi tried to think of a rational explanation, but came up with none. Takuma immediately came forward and asked the Snow nin, "What about flight or gliding?" The ninjas close to Kakashi looked to Takuma. The ninja simply answered, "Well yeah that is a possibility the winds could carry you far off, but gliding won't do much since you'll hit the sea regardless. The waves could carry you back to the mainland, but by swimming it would take you more than an hour to do so and even before then you'd drown. Flying would be out since our nins were posted along the house, I'm sure they would've seen a flying contraption."

Takuma said to him, "I just wanted to know if such a thing possible." Kakashi rubbed his chin and said, "That is possible, but we won't know. We have to return home. The mission has ended in failure, five of our men are dead and three of Yukigakure's nins are dead. We can't do anything more here."

Menma immediately punched the ground under him out of frustration saying, "Shit! We were so close and yet he got away! Shit! Shit! Shit!" Hana heard him shout and walked over to Menma and placed a comforting hand on his back. Guy finished talking to a few ninjas and walked over to Kakashi saying, "Kakashi we have to go. The Yukigakure chief wants us to leave, he doesn't blame us for what has happened, but he clearly said that this is their problem now. He also said that his ninjas will be on the look for Hidan and a kill on sight has been issued by them." Kakashi nodded and shouted to his fellow leaf nins, "Come on… We're going home!" Everyone agreed and they followed Kakashi to the pier.

Menma was disappointed in himself that he failed, everything about his baby brother was right there within his grasp… and yet it was gone just as quickly as they found it. Hana kept trying to tell him that they will find his trail again and not to worry, but that didn't help the young ninja…. not at all.

* A Mere 2 hours Earlier: Yukigakure *

Hidan was on the ferry boat that takes travelers to the Land of Snow. As the boat reached the island Hidan knew what he needed to do. Once the boat docked, Hidan made his way off of the boat and at blinding speed started off to the direction of his house. 'Owned the place for so long, and now I gotta trash the place. My fucking luck!' Hidan thought with a scowl on hus face. What would normally take him two hours only took him one. Walking up the path to his home he could see the red double doors clearly, though he wasn't stupid. He knew that he was being followed and watched by a few ninjas that have been following him since he got off the boat. Taking a glance around to make absolute certainty that he was being followed, he realized he still was and now needed to set out as quickly as possible. He closed the door and walked inside, not bothering to take off his sandals.

When he reached the living room he saw that Naruto was passed out on the floor. Around his feet were many leaves that had deep gashes in them. He kneeled down next to his sleeping student. Inspecting him to make sure he was seriously hurt. "It seems you've been working diligently squirt. You'll be a fine ninja one day." Hidan whispered to himself, proud of his young student.

Hidan stood back up and quickly looked around and walked into his room grabbing a backpack and loading up on some weapons. He walked into the kitchen and grabbed food that would last them until they reached Demon country.

After grabbing everything they would need, he pulled out a blanket and wrapped Naruto up in it and walked into the prayer room and over to a rug that was lying in the corner on the far left of the room. He quickly kicked the rug out of the way, exposing a little door. Channelling a little chakra into his left foot he stomped down on the door, caving it in and lept down. Once his feet touched the ground Hidan dashed down the cave like area. He quickly made it into an opening and looked down to the freezing and wild ocean water below. Hidan had Naruto in his right hand and the backpack dangling in his left. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, then once more channeled chakra into his feet. His eyes shot open and he shouted "Let's do this shit!" and began laughing like a maniac, he shot out of the opening and landed on the ocean water below.

As fast as Hidan's legs could carry him, he ran. Jumping over and dodging wave after wave. When a particularly large one came Hidan jumped over it and landed with a large splash a few feet away and kept running. When he was a good distance away from the unruly waves he stopped and took a few deep breaths. "I'm alive bitches!" he yelled at the sky. When he was done catching his breath he turned south to Iwa and began running, albeit slower. Hidan was now in no real hurry now. After all there was no need to now. And Iwa was only 8 hours away at his current speed. The only problem was when he got there, he would be exhausted.

* * *

 **Alright I promised a surprise, eh? I'm doing a Q &A for the story or me if ya fancy. I'll pick 10 of the best questions and answer them the next time around. Anyways remember to review, so I know what I'm doing wrong. Until next time!**


	6. Naruto and the Akatsuki

**I ended up getting 15 questions, so I'm going through them as we speak. They'll definitely be out next chapter. Anyways guys enjoy!**

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* 2 Days Later: Border of Iwa and Land of Ashes *

Naruto woke up sometime after they landed on the coast and asked what happened. Hidan was exhausted, but explained that Konoha ninja raided their home and he needed to take care of them. Hidan had to rest for a few hours, but afterwards started towards Demon country. Both men passed through Ash country without problem, it didn't take them long. But, the problem was that Hidan didn't have an exact idea as to where the base was located. After all he'd only been told to enter the Land of Demons. Nothing more.

Naruto was walking quietly next to Hidan taking notice of his surroundings. One would figure that a country named the Land of Demons, it would be a creepy place. However this wasn't the case, it was actually pretty lively. Animals were everywhere, plants and flowers were growing and looked to be well nurtured. Naruto tugged on Hidan's sleeve asking, "Father, where are we going exactly?" Hidan didn't look at Naruto, but he answered, "Don't fuckin' know yet, but I'll know when we get there."

Needless to say he wasn't very reassured with that answer, but like obedient boy he was followed. Continuing for some time Hidan felt another chakra source, he wasn't an expert by any means when it came to sensing chakra signatures, but he could sense the stronger ones. Hidan held his hand out to stop Naruto saying, "We got some company." Naruto and Hidan then saw the ground in front of them shift and rise. Whatever it was began to take form of a giant venus flytrap, the strange plant opened up revealing a man where the left half of his body was white and the other half was black, short green hair, yellow eyes, and the same kind of cloak those three ninja were wearing when they appeared to him.

Naruto examined the strange man and noticed that the black half of his body was missing a mouth and a nose. He also noted that once the man's full body was seen that his feet were both white instead of his right being black, his hands were hidden underneath his sleeves of his cloak so he wasn't sure how far along the black half went down the body.

The strange man spoke, but his voice seemed to be two people talking at once, "My, my this young lad isn't scared of me at all? That is interesting, most children his age would be at least surprised, but he has no emotion in those blue eyes at all." Naruto said to him, " I'm not like most fuckin' children." The fly trap man's white half smiled saying "But, he sure has a nasty mouth." Hidan pointed scythe at the man and started by asking, "Oi, you with Akatsuki?"

The human plant looked to Hidan saying, "Where are my manners, my name is Zetsu and yes I am part of Akatsuki. I am the spy that finds the juicy info for our organization." Zetsu turned around and headed off the dirt path saying, "Our leader is waiting for you. He was hoping that you'd accept his invitation." Hidan and Naruto didn't immediately follow, but they did after Naruto looked to Hidan to see if it was okay. Hidan nodded to Naruto meaning that it was okay.

The duo followed Zetsu off the path and into a forest in the lining area.

X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X

* Sundown: Konoha: Hokage Tower *

All the ninjas who took part on the mission to Yukigakure were standing in single file in front of Minato's desk after reporting the deaths of their ninjas and the ninjas of Snow, also relaying that Hidan knew of that he was being followed and set up a trap for them and escaped. Inside the office along with Minato were Kushina and Jiraiya, the sage ninja returned when Minato relayed information to him through the toads.

After hearing all the info they told him, he finally said to all of them, "So close too. Well there is nothing else we can do, I'll send messages to the Yukigakure chief and talk with him. You can all leave now, head on home and get some rest." All the ninjas bowed and said in a low voice, "Hai Hokage-sama." All of them were unenthusiastic as they all left one by one. All except for Menma who stayed inside his father's office.

Menma refused to meet their eyes and he told them, "I failed…" Jiraiya was the first to speak saying in a carefree tone, "Don't worry kid. With all the info we gathered I can set up my network to look out for the guy. I also found out a little bit of info that could give us a little insight about Hidan. Apparently this guy is all about money and everyone of his jobs I found out about had very high prices. Though that will get someone so far, but with someone like me searching I'll get to the bottom of this." Jiraiya walked from behind Minato's desk over to Menma placing a hand on his shoulder telling him, "Just let me handle it from here."

The blonde nin instead shook his head saying no, "I can't do that jii-san… I made a promise to mom and dad that I'd bring Naruto back myself and I intend to keep that promise." Jiraiya moved his hand from Menma's shoulder to pat him on the head and he said to his former student, "Don't worry Minato, Kushina-chan, I'll find where Hidan is hiding out in no time at all and I'll be sure to fill you in on whatever I find. Deal?"

Minato let a small laugh escape his lips and he responded, "Deal. I'll just tell the council that you're on your usual routine and will check up from time to time." Jiraiya satisfied with that waved goodbye to the family and left the office shutting the door behind him. Kushina walked over to her son and gave him a heartfelt hug trying to cheer him up, "I'm not upset at all. If you say that you'll bring Naruto back, then I have every faith in you that you will, don't beat yourself up over it."

Menma slowly returned his mother's hug and he could hear his father say, "Menma, I'm giving you some leave for at least a month so you could relax."Menma was about to argue, "But dad-"

Minato cut him off saying, "This is an order as your kage, not your father. It's not forever, just for a month. It will do you some good, also you could start after I tell you of a request a fellow nin asked of me." Kushina broke away from her son and walked over to where the couch was and sat quietly. Menma was a bit confused and asked his father, "What kind of request?" The young Hokage pressed a button on his intercom allowing to connect with his secretary, "Send him in please."

Two minutes later the door opened up revealing Itachi donning his ANBU uniform except for his mask. Itachi walked over till he was side by side with his rival looking at the Hokage. Minato made the ox handsign allowing a seal to appear on the ground, ceiling, walls, and windows of his office. After that was done he addressed them, "This room is sound proof and has genjutsu casted on the windows so no one can see in to read our lips."

Menma could now tell that his father was dead serious by the look in his eyes. Minato asked Itachi, "Itachi-san, could you fill my son in on what you told me." More of a statement than a request. Itachi however agreed and he turned to Menma telling him, "Recently my clan have been acting a little suspicious. Though difficult to explain I found out that my father Fugaku Uchiha is planning a coup." Needless to say Menma was stunned, "I brought this information to your father and the council, along with some evidence that can back up my statements. When the coup will occur I do not know, but I know that it will be soon and that we must act."

Minato cut in saying, " Menma, the council came to a vote when this information was brought to us. We cannot publicly come out to Fugaku letting him know that we know of his plans, if we did then he could become desperate in his situation and attack. Fugaku apparently recently informed Itachi in on the coup, but as Itachi said he doesn't know when it will occur. Itachi also said that he tried to talk his father out of it, but Fugaku wouldn't hear him out, so negotiations are out as well." Minato pulled out a scroll and placed it on his desk rolling it on it's side till it reached his son. Menma picked up the scroll and he heard his father say, "Within that scroll son is a modified flack jacket with numerous tri-pronged kunais with the Hiraishin no Jutsu formula on them already. Menma…. (sigh) you and Itachi are to go into the Uchiha compound and kill off every one of the Uchiha clansmen and by everyone I mean everyone. Itachi however requested that only Sasuke be spared in this attack, so you find Sasuke and leave him alive. Everyone else must be killed."

Menma looked over to Itachi and he saw that he was still stoic as ever, no emotion was being shown on his face. Minato however asked Itachi, "Itachi. Is there anyway you can get Sasuke out of your compound ahead of time? Like if I have Haru ask him to stay the night over at the Hokage's mansion." Itachi thought about it and simply agreed, "I can try."

Kushina butted in saying, "I can have Haru invite her friends over for a sleepover that way it's guaranteed that Sasuke will come over if his friends are there." The three ninjas in the room agreed that that was a good idea. Minato said to both Itachi and Menma, "Prepare yourselves, you attack tomorrow night once the district surrounding the Uchiha compound has gone dark. ANBU will be set up around the perimeter to keep any Uchiha's from escaping, I've already had Hiashi send over his clansmen to scope out underground escape routes. No one gets out… Am I understood?"

Both men said in unison, "Hai." Minato was happy with the answer and said, "Now I want to know what you will do now Itachi?" Itachi rose his eyebrow asking, "Beg your pardon?" Minato asked, "I mean what will you do after the Uchiha clan have been killed?"

Menma and Kushina stared at Itachi wondering what his answer will be. It took him awhile but he answered truthfully, "I will rebuild. I will rebuild the Uchiha clan to it's once former glory, I couldn't stand by and watch as my clan were planning on killing many in order to control the village… I just couldn't." Itachi looked over at Menma saying, "I can't do this alone Menma… I needed help from someone who is on the same level as me and can hold his own. That is why I requested that the Hokage allow you to join me on this."

"I don't mind helping a friend in need Itachi." said Menma. Itachi gave his rival a simple smile and then held his hand out for Menma to shake his hand. Menma reached his hand out and they both shook one another's hand. Minato told the two, "Well head out and relax till tomorrow."

Kushina told Itachi, "Don't worry I'll make sure Sasuke gets his invitation." Itachi accepted that and thanked her. Minato yawned and looked at the time saying, "Well we have a lot to do. I'm gonna lock up early and I suggest that you two get some rest." Again both ninjas agreed and Itachi was the first to leave. Minato dropped the seals around his office and he took his leave with Kushina and Menma preparing for the upcoming trouble.

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* Land of Demons: Akatsuki Base *

The three ninjas traveled deep into the forest for quite some time before coming to a stop at a cliff side that had a seal just sitting at the base of the cliff. Zetsu spoke telling the two, "We're here." He brought his ghostly white hand up making a one handed hand sign, after he did so the seal was glowing for a moment before the wall began to open up outward revealing a dark cave. Looking into the cave Hidan commented "Nice place." Zetsu turned and looked at Hidan, "This way."

Zetsu headed in first followed by Hidan and Naruto. The cave was huge and wide open with the only source of light coming from numerous candles all lined along the cave wall. "At least you assholes know how to live, that's for sure." Hidan commented whilst looking around. Hidan looked ahead and saw what looked to be a holographic figure in a rainbow spectrum. The figure turned around showing his eyes, ones that Hidan converted to memory as he recognized them instantly. Zetsu spoke to the figure first, "I've brought Hidan as requested Leader."

The holographic image told Zetsu, "Good work. Now Hidan does this mean that you'll join us?" Naruto moved a little behind Hidan incase something were to happen. Hidan wasn't nervous, but he was on guard, "You're not giving me much choice. Chances are that you'll hunt me down if I say no and if I say yes then that means I'm in a permanent position. Though recent events caused me to play my hand, so I'm in."

The strange spiky haired holo figure pointed to his left where hanging on the wall was a black cloak with the red clouds, "There is your uniform. Every member in this organization has a teammate, yours is currently looking after his own pupil." 'His own pupil, eh?' Hidan stored that piece of info away for when it was relevant. It was business time. Hidan walked over to the cloak with Naruto right behind him. He took off his current leather jacket and tossed it to the side and put on the new one. It fit him perfectly. The one called Leader told Hidan, "Reach into your left cloak pocket."

Hidan did as he was told and reached into his pocket pulling out a silver ring that was orange in color and the kanji for 'Three' on the ring. The Leader spoke again telling him, "Place it on your left index finger." Again doing as he was told Hidan slid the ring on the intended finger. The hologram disappeared and reappeared next to Hidan saying, "What I told you that day in Yuki was the truth. We capture the tailed beasts that the nations have and we will seal them inside a statue and that as long as you're with this organization you will have a place in the new world. No more running, no more hiding, only freedom and peace await." Hidan liked the idea of no longer having to conceal who he was and no longer having to live a life on the run.

He looked to Naruto and then back to his boss asking, "What of the little squirt?" The man's strange ripple like eyes seemed to pierce Naruto's very soul, but despite this the young boy didn't show any fear or even a hint of it and instead he stood his ground. He looked back at Hidan saying, "Your partner as I said has his own, and when the time comes I'm positive both will train with each other. And naturally he'll have a position in our organization, but as he is he cannot be a full fledged member. I know who this boy truly is and his heritage the moment I saw him in the forest."

Hidan looked at the man with interest asking, "How do you know?" The leader looked over to Zetsu saying, "Zetsu is our spy that lets us in on the littlest details. This organization has been around for a very long time, but we were more underground hiding in the shadows as we prepared our plan, so when we found out that the Yondaime Hokage sealed away the Kyuubi inside his own daughter and well you know the rest from there. Not to mention his hair and chakra, it breaths Uzumaki."

Hidan told him, "I get it, so what will he do?" Zetsu walked over telling him, "I had the idea to use the boy to capture the Kyuubi right from underneath the village's nose." Hidan looked to Naruto and told him, "Squirt, plant your ass on the other side of the cave." He didn't argue and he quickly ran over to the other side of the cave and sat down as he was told. Naruto was not in hearing range, the only thing he would be able to hear is muffled voices at the most.

The holo man clarified, "Since he is the son of the Yondaime Hokage, then we could use him. Have him get close to his sister and get him to lure her away from the others and in which case you and your partner will capture her." Hidan asked, "Don't you think that's a little fuckin' risky? How in Jashin's name will we accomplish this?" Zetsu answered, "Well to make sure he has a definite advantage over the other students I suggested that you and your partner, train him for another two years. And I'm sure he wouldn't mind his pupil learning how to work with others. Being familiar with each other so early on will be useful in the future. in whichever case we send him back to Konoha. Sure they may be skeptical at first, but that's why the initial capture won't occur until he turns thirteen, that way we have a sure fire chance that he will capture her. No doubt they'll drop their guard around him."

The leader told him, "Konoha will be suspicious, which is why we need Naruto to make them believe that he is okay. I have a plan all set up, all we need is your okay, I won't force a child to do this when they are not capable of handling it." Hidan glanced over to where Naruto was and thought it over. Hidan ran a couple scenarios in his head asking, "Is it it foolproof?"

Truthfully the leader answered, "Nothing is foolproof, just like everything else this plan does have a flaw or rather a few flaws. It all depends on how dedicated the boy is to accomplishing it." After giving it some thought Hidan tells him, "Fine. The little shit will do it. Now what's your name 'Leader'?" The man told Hidan, "My name is Pain. Welcome to our organization Hidan."

As Pain's hologram began to fade he told him, "I suggest you start training the boy now. Your partner Kakuzu and his pupil Fū will be here around midnight. So, I'm sure he can help a little, and Naruto can learn how to work with Fū. But, if you feel he isn't offering the lessons you wish to teach Naruto I'll send an additional Akatsuki member to help train him. Also if he can successfully accomplish this mission or if his skills improve dramatically, then I might just consider adding him as a permanent member in Akatsuki." After his image faded Hidan shouted to Naruto, "Naruto! Get your little ass over here!"

Naruto rushed over to Hidan and Zetsu. Hidan told Naruto, "Prepare yourself squirt. I will be training you non-stop from now until you turn ten, if you thought your previous training days were tough think again. I got two years to really teach you and we will make use of every second of it. Got it?" Naruto gave a big grin at that saying proudly, "I'll take it. What ever kind of training you give me dad I'll be ready and I won't stop until I die."

Zetsu made an impressed whistle sound saying, "Boy's got guts." Zetsu tapped Hidan on his shoulder to get his attention saying, "We got a little training room set up for when we acquire a new jutsu that they wanna use. It's just down that tunnel and you'll see the second open room." Hidan gave him a quick "Thanks man" for telling him and quickly motioned for Naruto to follow him. Zetsu watched them leave and his body began to merge with the ground until he was completely gone.

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* Morning: Konoha: Hokage Mansion *

Haru was sleeping peacefully in her bed when she felt someone kiss her on her cheek. She sat up rubbing her eyes to wake herself up, looking to whoever kissed her she saw her mother sitting on her bed with a warming smile. Haru smiled as well saying, "Good morning kaa-san." Kushina again leaned down and kissed her on her forehead this time saying to her daughter, "Good morning to you too Haru-chan." Haru slid off of her bed to look in her mirror, her long blonde hair was not in a braid yet it was usually her mother who put her hair in the braid although she did learn to braid her hair herself. Kushina pulled a chair that was in her daughter's room and sat behind her daughter and began to braid her hair slowly.

Haru asked her mother, "Kaa-san, do you think it would be okay if I stayed the night at Hinata-chans?" Kushina told her daughter, "Wouldn't it be better if we ask Hinata-chan, Sakura-chan, Ino-chan, and a few of your other friends over to have a sleepover here?" Haru's eyes lit up and she asked, "Really? Kaa-san I'd like that a lot." Kushina smiled wider and said, "Okay, then let's me and you go to your friends houses and we'll send an invite. How about we have them come over at lunch time?" Haru agreed with that and let her mother finish braiding her hair, she couldn't wait to have a sleepover with all her friends. As soon as she was done Haru tossed off her nightgown running to her closet she quickly put on an orange shirt with two vertical blue lines and a pair of blue shorts.

Kushina said, "Oh aren't you excited." Haru grabbed her mother's hand and said, "Come on kaa-san let's go." When they walked out into the hallway Haru made one quick stop to her brother's room, she pushed the door open and stood in the doorway saying, "Hey bro guess what? I'm having a sleepover, that's when all your friends come over and you play games, stay up late, and do all other fun things."

Kushina walked into the room next looking around the room and continued listening to her daughter. Haru happily said next, "When you come back I'll have the biggest sleepover just for you brother! Just you wait Naruto!" The room they were in was a room with blue wallpaper and a red swirl on the ceiling, a neatly made kid size bed, an empty dresser, and a toy box with a few toys in it. Kushina looked at the door and it had a plaque on it that had 'Naruto's Room' written on it. Kushina patted her daughter's head and said, "Come on Haru-chan."

Haru smiled and said one last thing before she left, "Don't worry brother, aniki will bring you home and we'll have all kinds of fun." Haru let one tear fall from her eye and she wiped it away and grabbed her mother to drag her out of the room. Kushina turned around to close the door, but paused when she saw that at the foot of the bed the bed was a little messed up as if someone was just sitting in it. She already knew who it was and she shut the door and followed her daughter downstairs.

In the dining room was Menma eating some pancakes he made himself while reading a magazine about dogs. He stopped reading for a moment when he heard someone running and he turned his head and saw Haru run up to him happily shouting, "Aniki! Kaa-san is taking me to my friends houses so I can invite them for a sleepover! Isn't that cool!?" Menma smiled and said, "Well that's cool. I'm sure you don't want your big brother there to embarrass you right?" Haru nodded and said, "Yeah that's right. You always embarrass me! So you can say hi, but then you have to go to your room and not bug us!"

Menma simply smiled and said, "Will do." Kushina made it downstairs, but Haru ran passed her to put her sandals on. Kushina took a moment and asked Menma, "Was your father in Naruto's room?" Menma turned to look at his mother and answered, "Huh? Oh yeah he was. I saw him this morning before he left for the office, I saw Naruto's door open and I saw him sitting on Naruto's bed."

She simply sighed and said, "Thought so. Haru was in Naruto's room talking to him again." Menma said to his mother, "Yeah, she's hoping that wherever he is that he can hear her. Oh, by the way. Itachi is going to come by here later tonight before we head out. Sasuke is not to know." Kushina nodded and said, "Of course or did you forget that your mother was a jounin before she became a devoted house wife and mother?" Menma chuckled and said, "No I didn't forget kaa-san. Have fun."

Kushina soon walked out of the house and saw her daughter waiting by the front gate. Haru ran over and grabbed her mother's hand and led her to the first house unaware of what was going to occur that night.

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* Land of Shadows: Akatsuki Hideout *

Naruto's clothes was in shreds. Hidan was sitting off to the side and watched as Naruto continued his grueling training. Naruto's mission was to get to Hidan all the while dodging all the jutsus and his scythe that would be coming after him. Hidan threw his scythe at high speeds towards Naruto's legs. Naruto however acted quickly and jumped up, barely dodging the massive weapon. But, when Naruto landed on the cave floor below Hidan quickly jerked the cord attached to his weapon and had it reeling back towards Naruto. With little time to act he went prone on the ground and rolled a few feet away.

Hidan started running through some handsigns at amazing speeds shouting, "Lighting Style: Disastrous Lighting Shot!" He held his arms out allowing lighting bolts to extend from his hand and shoot toward Naruto. Again the little blonde acted quickly by grabbing and throwing six kunai into the ground in front of where he landed. The lighting headed toward Naruto hit the kunais and didn't go any further. Naruto tugged on the metal wire allowing it to fall in his hand and he tossed it at Hidan.

The experienced nuke-nin however tilted his head to the side avoiding the kunai with ease. Hidan retaliated by throwing his scythe up in the air and quickly yanked down on the cord, aiming the weapon straight for Naruto's head. Nearly exhausted Naruto continued on ducking and dodging the deadly attacks. No doubt if it hit him, the sharp weapon would cut him to pieces.

Naruto continued through the exhaustion and kept moving forward despite it all. As he got closer Hidan did one hand sign saying, "Earth Style: Earth Clone!" A muddy figure appeared ahead of Naruto in the form, shape, and color of Hidan. Not surprised at all Naruto pressed on pulling out and throwing many shurikens that hit and stuck into the clone. He moved in to finish it off by picking up kunai laying on the floor and attempted to slice its head off. Though the clone blocked every hit Naruto threw at it and even used the kunai imbedded in it's body to try and cut Naruto.

Trying to elude the clone, Naruto gathered chakra into his feet attracting two shurikens that were on the ground from his previous tries. He kicked out and the two shurikens flew at the clone, but before the clone could react one of the shurikens shot past the clone and headed for Hidan's real body. Both Hidan and the clone turned their bodies to dodge the shurikens. The earth clone looked back to see that Naruto leapt over it and looped the metal wire around the clone's head and he pulled the wire hard enough to decapitate the clones head and Naruto watched it fall apart into mud. Not wasting any time Naruto dashed over to Hidan and he got close enough to grab him, but he immediately stopped and ducked to the side avoiding a wire trap that almost got his foot.

Zetsu slowly appeared behind Hidan asking, "Don't you think you're overdoing it? You've been training this kid into the dirt since you got here with only a total of an hour break." Hidan continued with the assault watching him carefully. Hidan did one more hand sign saying, "Earth Style: Earth Clones." Emerging from the ground were two earth clones this time instead of the one.

The clones rushed at Naruto engaging the small boy in hand to hand combat. Hidan answered Zetsu while he watched Naruto fight saying, "Hell no, he doesn't need rest. I know his limits and let's just say that he's got another good three hours nestled in his ass." Zetsu watched the training with interest and said "That's gonna be pretty damn impressive for a kid, then again what could one expect with an Uzumaki?"

With that said the two ninjas sat back, and watched Naruto fight off the earth clones with his impressive stamina.

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 **I had a lot of fun writing this chapter. And I hope you all had just as much fun reading it. Anyways until next time guys!**


	7. A New Era

**Ayo guys! Sorry for the super late update. Life was being inconvenient ya know? But, I made a promise and will see it out. Even if it kills me! Anyways y'all enjoy.**

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* Eleven O'Clock: Konoha: Hokage Mansion *

Haru was in the family living room along with all her friends, Hinata, Ino, Sakura, Shikamaru, Choji, Sasuke, Kiba, and Shino. They were all playing games with the exception of Shino and Sasuke who sat off to the side watching them. Kushina was in the other room talking with Itachi and her son who were about to head out. Menma told his mother, "Okay, so when news of this gets out Itachi will be seen as a hero for this, but at the same time Konoha will lose a major strength." Both Itachi and Menma were wearing ANBU ninja outfits.

Itachi cold heartedly said, "It's a sacrifice that must be made. The Uchiha clan must not succeeded or else this could turn into a civil war and other nations might move in during the commotion, the sacrifice of one family to save the hundreds we have in Konoha is well worth it." Kushina asked Itachi, "How will Sasuke-kun take it?" Itachi told her simply, "He has no choice but to accept what has happened. If he hates me for doing this then I can accept that, but this is the world we live in, not everyone gets happy ending." Menma looked over at the clock in the room and stood up telling his mother, "It's close to the time, we have to go meet dad at the Uchiha compound."

Kushina stood up too and gave her son a good luck kiss on his cheek, "Be careful out there Menma-kun. I don't know what I'd do if I lost you too." Menma gave her reassurance and said, "I'll be fine mom don't worry." Kushina also looked to Itachi and gave him a light kiss on the cheek and said, "You be careful out there too despite what Sasuke-kun may think afterward he'll need you." Itachi simply gave her an understanding nod and then the two ninjas walked to where the kids were to say goodbye for the night.

Haru saw her brother in ANBU armor and Itachi was wearing his as well. She ran over to her brother asking, "Where are you going aniki?" Menma kneeled down and placed his hand on the top of her head giving her a smile, "Aniki has to go with Itachi for some late night training, I'll see all of you in the morning so don't worry." Haru only could nod understanding.

Sasuke walked over to his big brother too and asked him, "You promise that you'll be back in the morning?" Itachi kept his usual gaze and told his little brother, "Yes, Sasuke-kun." He asked Itachi another question, "Oh by the way can we head home in the morning? Kaa-san said that she wanted to take me to get some new clothes so I wanted to be there when you got back." Itachi didn't answer him he only told Menma, "We should go now Menma before we are late." Menma agreed and he looked to Sasuke saying, "I'll see ya later Sasuke-kun." He stood up and told the rest of Haru's friends, "Okay guys have fun." All of the kids told him okay and they watched the two leave out the front door.

Itachi and Menma stood outside the front door for a moment before grabbing their ANBU masks that were strapped to their backs and put them on. Itachi's was a Weasel mask and Menma's was Toad mask, after putting on their masks they jumped off to where Minato was waiting for them.

Kushina meanwhile was inside getting all the kids to set up their sleeping bags in the living room and to go upstairs to brush their teeth before going to bed. The kids set up their sleeping beds and slowly went up stairs with their toothbrushes in hand. This was really the first time the kids were allowed upstairs in the Hokage's house since they were told by their parents that they shouldn't joke or disturbed the Hokage's home and should be respectful. As they went upstairs Choji saw a door that had a plaque on it and he then red it out loud, "'Naruto's Room'… Hey Haru-chan who's Naruto?" All the kids stopped and looked to where Choji was looking and they saw the room and wondered the same thing. Hinata asked her, "I-I-Is the H-H-Hokage and your kaa-san e-e-expecting a b-baby?"

All of the kids had their attention at Haru who was staring intently on the door, but found her voice and answered, "Nuh-uh, that was my twin brother's room." Kiba asked her, "I didn't know you had a twin. What happened to him?" Ino elbowed him in the side and said, "You have to be brain dead." Kiba looked at Haru who looked a little sad and understood that it was a sensitive subject. Sakura spoke up after the silence, "Anyways guys lets go brush our teeth like Kushina-sama told us to." Everyone agreed and headed to the bathroom. Shikamaru and Hinata stopped and noticed that Haru didn't move yet. Shikamaru asked her, "Oi Haru-chan you okay?" Haru finally snapped out of her trance and said happily putting up a fake smile, "Hai I'm okay." The little girl ran to the bathroom avoiding both Shikamaru and Hinata's worried looks.

Hinata said to Shikamaru, "D-Do you think she'll b-be okay?" Shikamaru shrugged his shoulders, "I dunno, but she's tough nothing we should really worry about." Hinata accepted that answer and the two walked to the bathroom to brush their teeth to get ready for bed.

* Twelve O'Clock: Uchiha Compound *

Itachi and Menma were leaping house to house quietly to where they were told to rendezvous with Minato. The two came to a stop when they saw him standing on a house looking into the direction of the Uchiha compound and they landed behind him bowing on one knee. Minato saw them and said, "Good you're both here. Here is the situation, I alerted all the clans that there was going to be a kind of drill and I ordered all of them to remain indoors until morning. I posted ANBU in the perimeter around the Uchiha compound with my tri-pronged kunai in case any try to escape, there are also Hyuugas posted along with them incase they try and hide in the bunkers underground. Keep your radios on the channel 3. Understood?"

Menma and Itachi didn't speak only nodding. Minato exclaimed, "Good, now it's all you two. Good luck." Menma pulled out a scroll and unsealed it's content which was the modified flack jacket with the numerous kunais. He strapped on the jacket and he disappeared along with Itachi. Minato watched their movement and an ANBU appeared out of the shadow saying, "Hokage-sama the perimeter is complete and clear."

Minato said, "Good, thank you Ferret. Return to your post and remember to use my jutsu incase you can't handle the situation." The ANBU bowed and then disappeared back into the shadows. Minato sighed, "It's time." Minato waited ten minutes and that's when he heard it, screams of terror and battle cries. Even though they were about to betray Konoha he couldn't help but feel his heart ache hearing the screams and then suddenly disappearing knowing that their lives were ended. He had no choice but to shut off his emotions at that point and was forced to stand their and listen to all the voices that disappeared into the night.

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* Midnight: Akatsuki Hideout *

Naruto was currently standing behind Hidan who was talking to his new partner. Naruto however wasn't paying attention to his father, but to a little girl around his age who was also standing behind said partner. She was petite, possessing tan-skin, she wore an orange clip in her short, spiky mint green hair that matched her eye colour, which was also orange. Her ninja outfit consisted of a short sleeveless white midriff shirt with mesh armour underneath, long white armlets, and fishnet shorts with a short white apron skirt over it. She also donned a scratched Taki forehead protector that she wore on her right arm. Much like the taller man she stood behind.

Naruto continued to look at her until she smiled at him. Naruto quickly looked down and a small blush creeped on his cheeks. 'W-What is this feeling.' the young ninja thought to himself. His chest was tightening up and he could feel his cheeks burning. Perhaps he was getting sick? Maybe he'd tell his father if it got any worse. "Yo, Squirt." He was quickly brought from his thoughts by his father. "You've got a long enough break. You should pick up where you left off." Naruto nodded and immediately ran back to his original position and sat down in a meditation position. Picking up a leaf from the pile Hidan had gotten him earlier, he put it between his palms and got to work.

Kakuzu hearing what his new partner said to his pupil, looked down at Fū and said "You should as well continue your training. In about an hour you can stop and hit the bed. We'll be busy tomorrow. Understood?" Fū nodded and ran over to where the boy was and decided to sit about 8 feet in front of him. Sitting in a meditation position she closed her eyes and concentrated. Holding out both hands and channeling wind and fire chakra into her hands, a small fireball appeared in her hands and she started moving it in a circle. It was difficult for her, but she was getting better at it.

When both men were satisfied with their respected apprentices, they turned back to each other. Hidan inspected the man in front of him. He was definitely the same man that had come that night in Yukigakure. However he now had a name to the face, and the name was Kakuzu. Hidan started by saying "A kekkei genkai, eh?" Kakuzu nodded "Scorch release, wouldn't have trained her if she didn't have a bloodline. It's proved to be useful. And yours seems to be an Uzumaki, haven't seen one of those in a long time." Hidan nodded this time and looked back to his student "Ya, the little shit keeps me on my toes but he's useful." silence fell on both men as they decided to rather to watch their students train.

Naruto cracked his left eye open and looked at the girl named Fū. For some reason he couldn't stop looking at her. There was something alluring to her that he couldn't explain. He closed his eye and lightly shook his head. He had training he needed to focus on.

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 **If ya have a complaint, don't be afraid to speak up!**


	8. One

**Hope y'all like it!**

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Two Years Later: Konoha: Hokage Mansion *

Kushina was in the garden tending to the new batches of roses that were beginning to bloom making sure they had plenty of water. As she was tending to the plants she felt a presences behind her and couldn't help but smile, in one swift motion she picked up her gardening shovel and blocked a kunai that came down on her head and quickly disarmed her attacker by bending the arm back making the one attacking drop the kunai. She immediately reached out and grabbed the attacker by the collar of their shirt and knocked her attacker to the ground putting the small garden shovel to the neck. After all of that she kept her smile and said, "That was a nice try Haru-chan."

Haru was laying on the ground with her right arm bent behind her back and her mother's gardening tool to her throat. Kushina lifted her daughter up and said, "Keep that up and one day you will surpass me, you just need to work on your stealth." Haru stood up and dusted herself off, she was wearing a dark orange shirt with black sleeves and black ninja pants. Her blonde hair was longer from two years ago reaching the back of her kneecaps. After she got done dusting herself off she happily asked her mother, "Hey kaa-san can Hinata-chan, Sakura-chan, and Ino-chan come over to hang out? Pleaseeeeeee, I swear that I'll come back here with my friends." Kushina brought her finger to her chin acting like she was thinking, "Hmmmm I don't know about that after all you're still grounded."

Haru laughed at her mother joking and said, "Mom please, I promised that I wouldn't do that again and I really want to be with my friends." Kushina pulled her daughter into a hug and said, "Okay, but you'll still need to come straight home everyday after the academy understood?" Haru jumped up in the air with joy then darted off into the house to put her sandals on to go get her friends. She made it to the front door and put on her black ninja sandals and ran out the door. Her first stop was to Hinata's since her family's compound was closer to the Hokage mansion. She wasn't afraid to walk around town by herself as long as she stayed away from the industrial district, weapons district, and the old Uchiha compound. Haru stopped in her tracks and thought, 'Sasuke hasn't been the same since then…' She shook her head free of those ideas shouting, "Why should I care about that baka!"

"I think it's because he might be you brother-in-law one of these days."

Haru looked up into the tree behind her and saw her father sitting in it looking at her. Minato jumped down and picked his daughter up against her will and she shouted, "What does that mean tou-san!?" Minato laughed and said, "So your mother let you out huh? And what I mean by that is that It's no secret that you like Itachi-" Haru immediately slammed her hands over her father's mouth to silence him, because a few people walked by giving sincere hellos to the two. Minato waved back with his mouth still covered by he was still smiling underneath it. Once they left Haru removed her hands shouting at her father, "Tou-san! A few people may know, but I don't want the whole village to know!" Minato giggled and said, "Okay, okay I'm sorry. So hime where you off to on a day like this?"

His daughter hopped out of his arms putting her hands on her hips, "I'm going to Hinata-chan's house so I can pick her up and so we can go get Ino and Sakura as well to come over and hang out back home." Minato made an 'oh' expression, but Haru pointed a finger at her father asking, "And I thought you were at the tower tou-san, what are you doing out of your office?"

Minato told his daughter, "I am in the office, well my kage bunshin is anyway. I needed to get out of that stuffy office and away from all those documents." Haru scolded, "Tou-san you know kaa-san would be mad if she found out that you used a kage bunshin in the office again after that one time. By that way why does she get mad?" Minato rubbed the back of his head remembering it all to well. He left his office one day to do a usual stroll around the village and left a clone in his office to finish up some documents. However Kushina had came by to visit her husband and an intense make out session was in progress, but Kushina had accidentally knocked the clone out of the chair making it hit it's head on the ground dispelling it. Needless to say she was pissed that it wasn't her husband and since then he wasn't allowed to do that ever again.

The young kage asked his daughter, "Never mind that, but don't tell kaa-san that you saw me out of the office okay?" At that moment Haru had a little glint in her eyes and he knew that all too well, if it was one thing his daughter was known for it was how she can turn tables on people and how she could get people to do things for her. She immediately spoke in a superior tone, "Oh well tou-san I guess I could do that, but what would I get in return? I mean if kaa-san would be angry with you, then I should get something out of this." Minato had a sweat drop form on his head as he tried, "Now listen young lady I control your allowance."

Haru though wasn't fazed as she said, "True tou-san, but kaa-san might give me a bigger allowance if I tell her that you left a bunshin in the office while you took a stroll into the village without her. Now how can we resolve this." Minato sunk in and knew that she had him, he hung his head in defeat asking, "Okay what do you want?" Haru leapt up and hugged her dad asking, "Well I want you to convince kaa-san to let me have ramen again I can live with being grounded by not without ramen." Minato also remembered this one, one day Haru went over to Ino's and didn't tell anyone so Kushina was all worried and depressed and when the little girl returned Kushina might as well been an demon, Haru was immediately grounded and she was not permitted to have ramen for two months…. She is currently going on one day…

Minato sighed as his daughter kept her hug on his waist, "You are just determined to get me sent into the lion's den aren't you?" Haru simply smiled and nodded happily. Minato sighed and said, "You're an evil child, but I got no choice." Haru climbed up to her father's face and planted a kiss on his cheek saying, "For good luck. Later tou-san." She immediately took off for Hinata's home.

He stood there for a moment and looked in the direction of his home and imagined seeing an evil aura emanating from his house with a sign that red 'Death'. He turned back around and said to himself, "Maybe I'll do that later." He put his hands together and disappeared in a swirl of leaves back to his office.

* Hyuuga Compound - Konoha *

Haru was standing in front of the Hyuuga compound, Hinata's clan was now the most prestigious clan and now the most powerful since the Uchiha clan were wiped out. Before the villagers would say that the Uchihas were stronger, but once they were killed Hinata's clan was now the dominate rain of power in konoha next to her father of course. One of the gate guards went to fetch Hinata and had her wait outside with another guard.

She didn't wait long as the door opened up with the Hyuuga guard walking out and Hinata right behind him. Hinata was wearing a dark lavender kimono. Haru noticed that Hinata was depressed again asking in a sincere tone, "You okay?" Hinata looked down so Haru couldn't see her face and then looked back up putting on a fake smile, "Hai I'm okay." Haru knew why she was depressed, Hinata had told her that her father was disappointed in her progress and said she held no promise as a ninja. But Haru kept Hinata going saying that 'Watch Hinata-chan, one day you'll become a famous and strong ninja and when that day comes you'll prove your whole family wrong. Just wait and see.'

Those words kept Hinata going whenever she was depressed. Haru nudged Hinata saying, "Come on let's go get Ino and Sakura so we can hang out." Hinata happily agreed hoping that spending sometime with her friends would cheer her up.

The two girls walked into the busy part of town where Ino's family flower shop was located to go and see if she was in. They waded through the crowds of people, right now it was busy since Konoha was about to host a festival for the day Konoha was founded and a lot of people in the Fire Country come to the festival. The two kept walking through everyone and Haru shouted to Hinata, "Come on let's jump from building from building like real ninjas." Hinata agreed, but the only problem was that they weren't very good yet in terms of stamina aside from Haru who had an inhuman amount of stamina. The two ran next to a building and jumped up high enough to grab the edge of the roof, Haru pulled herself up and then helped Hinata up. Once they saw where they were they started jumping building to building.

As they ran building to building Haru looked down at the crowds and saw many people gathering for this event, but she suddenly stopped and saw someone in the crowd that interested her. Hinata stopped to and stood next to her and she followed her line of sight to the crowds beneath and she saw a young boy walking in the crowd who had spiky red hair that reminded her of her mother, black shirt that was ripped and torn, black pants that were in the same condition, a strange pendant around his neck, and he seemed worn out. Cuts covered his body. They saw him sit down with his back leaning against one of the shops to catch his breath.

Hinata and Haru looked at each other and then jumped down to the boy. Hinata leaned down to look at his face, normally she would be to embarrassed to do so, but embarrassment was replaced with concern and worry, "Um, excuse me." The young boy looked up at both women Haru looked at his eyes and thought, 'He's the only other person I've seen outside of my family that have those color eyes. And I've never seen anyone with Kaa-san's hair before either.

Hinata being shy around new people struggled to find her words, "U-Umm a-a-are y-you o-o-okay?" He didn't answer, but he shook his head no. Haru kneeled down so she was eye level with him asking, "What's your name?" He didn't answer at first, but he told her, "My dad called me 'Naruto' before I lost track of him." Haru and Hinata looked a little shocked. Naruto stood up and asked them, "Do you know where the hospital is so I can get my wounds looked at?"

Hinata told him, "W-W-Well l-l-let u-us t-t-take y-y-you t-there." Naruto's eyes remained unchanged and he said, "I don't want to be a bother." Haru wanted to know a little more about this guy and said, "It's no bother at all. Besides me and Hinata wouldn't feel right letting you go off by yourself in your condition." Naruto shrugged it off and said, "Lead the way."

Hinata and Haru started walking ahead of him and he was following behind them at least seven feet away. Haru and HInata would look back every now and then to make sure that he was following them which he was. Hinata leaned next to Haru whispering, "Haru-chan he looks like your tou-san, nii-san, and yourself." Haru looked back again and whispered to Hinata, "I thought so too, but my dad always said 'Leave your mind open to the possibility that you're wrong'. It's too much of a coincidence…. After we take him to the hospital can you watch him? I need to tell my dad about this."

Hinata was beat red, but she reluctantly agreed. Haru nodded good and she looked back at Naruto, "Hey we'll be there soon so don't worry." Naruto responded, "I'm not worried nor am I in any hurry." Haru frowned and said to Hinata without whispering, "He's not very cheerful like the rest of my family." Hinata put her hands over her mouth to stifle a giggle. The three young kids made it to the hospital and Haru walked up to the reception desk asking, "Excuse me. Um my friend and I found this boy injured in town." The woman at the reception desk saw Haru and Hinata though she drifted her attention to the boy and saw him covered in cuts. She looked around and saw a medic-nin off to the side reading a report, "Excuse me sir, this young boy needs your assistance."

The medic looked up from the clipboard he had and saw Naruto, he walked over to where Naruto was and placed the clipboard down on the reception desk. He placed his hands over Naruto's chest and a green light emitted from the man's hands as he did a diagnostic, "Let's see, he has no life threatening injuries, no broken bones, no kind of sickness, all in all he's healthy aside from the cuts." He stands up and says, "All he needs is some antibiotics and to be bandaged, don't worry young ladies he'll be fine."

Both girls let out a sigh of relief at those words. The medic told Naruto, "Alright follow me this way and I'll take care of those wounds." Naruto complied and followed the man. Haru nudged Hinata a little bit, she got the message and ran after them. Haru watched them leave and then ran off to see her father and tell him what happened.

* Hokage Tower *

Minato was going over the work his clone had done in his absence. He however had a visitor, Menma had dropped by and was off to the side reading one of his godfather's old books 'The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi'. Both of the blondes were so into what they were doing that they almost missed the knock at the door. Minato snapped his head up and rubbed his eyes to focus calling out, "Come in."

The door opened revealing his secretary who told him, "Hokage-sama you have a visitor." She moved off to the side and in his view now was his daughter. Haru was breathing a little heavy and she walked up to her father's desk. Minato smiled and said jokingly, "Hey Haru-chan, what's up?" Haru was trying to catch her breath and she asked him, "Tou-san just a little while ago me and Hinata found this boy who was injured and we took him to the hospital."

Menma chuckled a little asking, "Did some of Kakashi's habits rub off on you and your trying to come up with an excuse to stay out later?" Haru looked to her older brother and said seriously, "I'm not lying! The boy was really hurt and… and…" Minato and Menma could tell she was really serious. Minato walked around his desk and kneeled down in front of her placing his hands on her shoulder, "That's very nice what you did Haru-chan, so what happened to the boy?" Haru looked in her father's eyes and she saw the strange blonde boy. She shook her head and said, "Tou-san the boy looked like Kaa-san and he said his name is Naruto!" She saw the look in her father's eyes was that of shock and she looked over to her brother who was now standing up and no longer seated with the same look of shock.

Minato picked his daughter up and carried her out with Menma following behind him. Minato passed up his secretary telling her in a strict tone, "Find me Ibiki Morino and have him go to the Konoha hospital to find me!" She did as she was told and headed off to relay the message. Minato asked Haru, "Would anyone know where he is in the hospital Haru?" Haru managed to answer, "The medic who looked at him left his clipboard on the reception desk."

Menma asked his dad, "What are the chances it's him?" Minato couldn't think straight right now, the thought of his son that he's never seen yet here in Konoha was all he could think about. Menma tried asking, "Should we tell mom?" Minato immediately said, "No, by the off chance that this isn't Naruto then I don't want to get her hopes up and it turns out it's not him." The moment the two left the building the dashed off at amazing speeds that made them out as yellow blurs. Minato and Menma were running so fast that the ANBU who follow after the Hokage couldn't keep up and Haru was holding onto her father with all her might.

* Konoha Hospital *

Menma and Minato flung the doors open and they walked over with Haru still in Minato's hands to the reception desk. Everyone watched the blonde's move over to the desk, Menma saw a clipboard on the desk and quickly snatched it reading the name off, "Takamora." He looked to the receptionist asking, "Was Takamora the one who is healing a little redhead boy?"

The receptionist answered, "Y-Yes he is. Umm, the girl right there came with him, umm they treat children in the room down that hall over there room 17." She pointed to a hallway that was on the left side of the lobby. Minato and Menma immediately headed down the hallway toward the room number. Menma started reading off the numbers on the doors, "14, 15, 16…. 17! Right there!"

They saw the room and Minato reached out for the handle, but froze. Haru climbed out of her father's now loose grip and just saw him stuck looking at the room number, she reached up and touched her father's hand who in turn looked at her, she seemed to give him a sincere look and nodded to him. Minato smiled and placed his hand on the doorknob and opened the door.

Inside was Hinata, Takamora, and the other little boy who was called Naruto. All three looked at the door and saw their visitors, Takamora and Hinata bowed and politely said, "Good morning Hokage-sama." Minato walked in front of the boy who did look a lot like Kushina and himself, he stood directly in front of him and saw that his wounds were all bandaged.

Minato mustered a smile and asked the young boy, "What's your name?" Naruto still held his uninterested look in his eyes and answered truthfully, "My name is Naruto Uzumaki." the kage asked next, "How old are you?" Again the boy answered the question given to him, "I turned ten years old last October 10th." Haru said, "Hey that's my birthday, I turned ten as well."

Minato looked at the medic asking, "Did you get a blood sample?" The medic nodded and Minato unraveled his sleeve showing his bare arm, "Take a blood sample from me and send both mine and Naruto's here to get analyzed… You know what I mean too." The medic really did understand so he took out a syringe and took some of his blood and then he took a second syringe that was already filled with blood and left the room. Menma looked the boy over and saw many similarities and did not think this a hoax or a coincidence that a boy looked so much like his mother. He placed a hand on his father's shoulder and said, "I'm going to send a shadow clone to alert mom. She deserves to know." Minato wasn't really listening, but nodded anyway. Menma summoned up a clone and watched as the clone ran out of the room to go get Kushina.

Naruto was still seated in his chair looking at the man in front of him not saying a word, he wasn't showing any emotion at all nor was he worried or concerned about the whole situation unraveling in front of him. Haru and Hinata walked next to him and pulled two chairs on both sides so they could sit with him. Hinata asked him, "Naruto-kun where are you from?" At this point Hinata was to curious about the boy.

Naruto looked at Hinata and he looked straight into her eyes and said, "My home was in Snow country, but we haven't been there since ninjas from this village went over there." Minato and Menma were both simply flabbergasted that he talked about that since Menma went on the mission to capture Hidan in Yukigakure two years ago. Naruto continued by saying, "Since then we've been sleeping in forests."

Haru poked his arm and asked, "Did you live with anyone else? Because I remember you said that you had a dad before you said that you lost track of him." Minato now was confused that Naruto would refer to Hidan as father, but then thought that since Naruto was possibly only around him then it was natural that the boy would refer to him in someway.

Menma grabbed a scroll from his ninja pouch and unsealed it's content which was the picture of Hidan that was made two years ago, he held it up to Naruto and asked, "Is this who you traveled with?" Naruto looked at the picture and immediately nodded, "Yeah that's tou-san." There was not a doubt in both men's mind that this was without a doubt Naruto Namikaze, but it seems ten years with the criminal has made Naruto emotionless and that he has taken to calling Hidan as his father figure, something Minato feared. Minato kneeled down in front of Naruto and said, "Listen Naruto-kun… Ten years ago my son was kidnapped when he was a newborn, now Hidan got ahold of you and we got word from a now extinct village that they were offered money to kidnap him, but Hidan killed both of them and took their money."

Naruto cut in saying, "Ya, that sounds like him." Minato continued, "But we don't know who he was taking him too, but me, my wife, Menma here, and even Haru the girl sitting next to you believed that he was alive and well somewhere. We did everything in our power to find him and bring him home. However it seems that he came home on his own." Naruto remained silent for a moment and he said simply, "You think…. no wait, you know that I am your son is what your saying."

Minato nodded and pulled Naruto in for a hug and the boy didn't refuse. Naruto was still seated and just let the man hug him and Naruto could hear slight sobbing sounds coming from him, Naruto then thought, 'I don't understand… Ninjas never show emotions and I always thought even a kage was above that.'

Naruto was able to see the man since he was glancing over Minato's right shoulder. Minato broke his hug from his son when the door flung open revealing Kushina who came back alone, Menma at that moment gained his clone's memories and saw that the clone also found Ibiki who was on his way to the room. Kushina was panting heavily and her eyes were glued to the boy sitting between Haru and Hinata. She walked over to Naruto and Minato moved out of the way so she was kneeling in front of him.

The little red haired, blue eyed boy that she only caught a glimpse of ten years ago was sitting right in front of her now, without warning she pulled the boy off his chair and into her arms hugging him and crying profusely. Hinata and Haru were shedding a little tears as well watching how Kushina brought her right hand up to her son's head and started to stroke his red hair. Naruto remained in her arms and asked, "Who are you?"

It stung, it stung a lot to Kushina to hear those words from a son she hasn't seen in ten years, but forced herself to remember that he was kidnapped and that he wouldn't know of any of them. Kushina broke from her hug looking him in his eyes that immediately reminded her of her husband, oldest son, and daughter, "Minato-kun, this is him, this is our son. A mother knows these things." Naruto's eyes were remained on hers as he said, "You're my mother?" Kushina nodded and he said, "I have a pretty mother." Kushina again pulled the boy into a hug happy to hear that. After a while Ibiki came into the room with a few ANBU and he saw the scene before him. Minato walked over to Ibiki and had him meet him outside the room.

Minato closed the door and told him, "We are waiting for the test results to see if he has a blood match with me, but I want you to take him and ask him a few questions and get Inoichi involved. It's not that I don't trust him, it's that I DON'T trust Hidan." Ibiki nodded agreeing and said, "I'll make sure to do a full check and I'll have Inoichi do a complete search of his mind. You have my word." Minato thanked him and moved out of the way. Ibiki walked into the room alone and saw that Kushina was still hugging him and he asked, "Kushina-sama, I'm sorry but we need to borrow him and ask him a few questions about his captor." Kushina only held him tighter not wanting to let him go. Minato came back in and said, "Kushina please. Naruto will be coming back home, that's a promise."

Naruto felt her grip loosen and she moved back enough to see his face. Kushina leaned forward and gave him a kiss on his forehead and said, "I'll see you soon." Naruto looked to Haru and said, "Thank you for bringing me to the hospital… sister." Haru blushed and started rubbing the back of her head out of embarrassment. Naruto turned and looked at Hinata who was already blushing and said, "Thank you for helping me as well…Hinata." Hinata gave a shy nod. Ibiki walked over to Naruto and held out his hand, Naruto looked at his hand and took it without question and left the room with him. Menma walked out of the room as well telling his father, "I need to watch over this." Minato agreed and watched both his sons leave with Ibiki and the ANBU.

Minato leaned into the doorway and told Kushina and his daughter, "Come on let's go home and don't worry Kushina I will alert you when Ibiki is done and when 'you' can pick him up." Kushina walked up to him and kissed him square on the lips and Haru said, "Ewwwww! I don't wanna see my parents kiss!" Hinata gave a little chuckle at her friends antics. Kushina broke the kiss from her husband and looked to Haru and Hinata and said, "Come on Hinata you can stay at the mansion." Hinata again nodded her head, she liked staying at Haru's house. Haru and Hinata passed up her father and stopped, she looked at him with an evil grin and said, "Oh kaa-san! Tou-san would like to ask you something about my punishment!"

Kushina stopped and looked at Minato who was now sweating bullets. Haru began to snicker thinking, 'This is gonna be fun. I bet he thought I forgot all about that.' Minato stood there and thought, 'Yup, this is an evil child.'

* * *

 **I'll try to get the next out soon. It honestly shouldn't take long. But, anything could happen. Nevertheless tell me what you think. Don't be afraid to criticize. I welcome it. Till next time!**


	9. C H A P T E R 9

* 20 mins Later: ANBU Headquarters: Interrogation Wing *

After twenty minutes of interrogation Naruto was still sitting in a chair in a very dimly lit room, ANBU were standing along the small four walled room. Sitting in front of Naruto was Ibiki, Menma, and Inoichi talking to Naruto about his life with Hidan. Ibiki was sitting in-between the two other clan members asking Naruto, "Now is there any reason why you and Hidan split up?" Naruto kept his unemotional face and answered, "No I don't know why. I just woke up and he was gone, one minute he was there and the next he was wasn't."

Inoichi looked over to a male ANBU ninja who had long dark brown hair. The ninja simply nodded and Inoichi looked back at Naruto. Ibiki scratched the top of his head then asked, "Why come to Konoha? Why not go out and try and find him, I mean after all from what you've told us he is your father figure?"

Naruto drifted his eyes from side to side thinking of a reason and said, "I dunno why he left whatever is happening he obviously knows what he's doing and why come to Konoha? Well it was the closest Major village. Everywhere else was either a farming community or a few rich mansions. No reason to really stay, and no way to really make any sort of life in them. So naturally I continued to roam. Along the way I fought a lot of animals and was very fatigued and hungry." Again Inoichi looked at the same ANBU and saw him nod again.

Ibiki leaned back in his chair and said, "So there is absolutely nothing you can tell us about Hidan? Not where his other hideouts are, the contractors he has used in the past, the contacts he goes to meet, or any...churches he regularly visits?" Naruto shook his head, "I'm sorry I don't know. Before he would take me to meet them, but I guess a few were getting suspicious so he would have me wait outside the contact's area or in a forest. Also there are numerous churches everywhere, no telling if he uses a specific one or few." The ANBU walked over to Inoichi and whispered, "Sir he's been telling nothing but the truth. As you've said I've kept my byakugan on him the entire time and I saw no fluctuations."

Inoichi nodded and then stood up telling Naruto, "Naruto-kun, my name is Inoichi the clan head of the Yamanaka clan. Now my clan specializes in the ability to look inside the minds of others. So I will look into your mind to see for myself if you might have missed something you're telling us."

Naruto understanding where the man is coming from nods lightly, "Okay, so you'll look into me. I have no problem with that." Inoichi on the other side of Ibiki and sees that Menma was silent wanting to take this all in. The clan head tells the ANBU, "Take Naruto to the room we set up for these situations." Two ANBU nod and they walk over to Naruto and politely guide him out of the room. Ibiki stands up from his seat asking Menma, "What do you think?"

Menma shifted in his seat, "I dunno. Maybe he is hiding something or he's afraid to tell us something. He also said Hidan knows what he's doing? Could it be that there is something in Konoha that he wants and he's using Naruto to get it?" Inoichi said, "That is true. We can't say that Naruto's return is of pure coincidence as of yet."

Ibiki told the ANBU to leave and he told Inoichi and Menma, "There is also the fact that this guy is very skilled, he knew he was being followed by our ninjas and he had a trap set up just for us. If what Naruto said during our investigation is true then this guy took down the 'Hoshikage' with little to no help, so it stands that Hidan might take Naruto back at some point." Menma told him, "Agreed, I'll just have to watch Naruto's movements carefully." Inoichi headed out of the room saying, "I'll report what I see."

Menma gets out of his chair as well saying to Ibiki, "Well let's go."

* Second Interrogation Room: Yamanaka Room *

This room was specially modified for the Yamanaka clan to allow them easy access into the minds of others for interrogation. Naruto was seated in the center of the room with many different writings on his body and one written behind his neck for 'Enter'. He was also no longer wearing his Jashin pendant. Something about getting in the way. While Naruto wasn't particularly happy about being separated from such a sacred item, he knew it was only temporary. Inoichi was standing behind Naruto with his hand on the top of Naruto's head, "Okay Naruto I'm going to have a look inside your mind. Be aware that you will not be able to move while I'm in your mind as a safety procedure that neither you nor myself be harmed during this part of the investigation. Okay?"

Naruto can only nod at this point and closes his eyes. Menma, Ibiki and the ANBU were in a circle around the two with five ANBU sitting holding their hands out with the same kanji written on them, but the 'Enter' kanji was on their right hands, the five had their hands aimed at Naruto.

Inoichi started and he closed his eyes and easily entered Naruto's mind. Inoichi tactic of entering people's minds was far above his family members, he could enter by himself without the use of the ritual, but since time was of the essence he needed to be able to unlock every inch of Naruto's mind in one good swoop. Two minutes went by and Inoichi's eyes shot open.

He took his hand off of Naruto's head and said in a semi-cold tone, "Take Naruto to one of the rooms and make sure you watch over him." The ANBU agreed and they picked up the unconscious Namikaze and took him to a room. Menma watched them leave with Naruto and he asked Inoichi, "What happened? What did you see?" Inoichi took a few good breaths and he told Menma, "Go get your mother and father, they will want to hear this, hurry please."

Menma did as he was told and ran out of the room to go get his parents. Ibiki walked over to Inoichi and helped him sit down asking, "Was it bad?" Inoichi took one last good breath and answered, "Yes it was."

* Ten Minutes Later *

Minato, Menma, and Kushina entered the ANBU building leaving them worried about what could be wrong. Kushina had asked Hiashi if Haru could stay with them until they returned, Hiashi simply told them he would and that he would await their return. The three Namikazes walked through the building and they found Inoichi and Ibiki in a room where there was a large one-way mirror that allowed them to see Naruto sleeping in his room, but he couldn't see them. The Hokage asked Inoichi, "Menma told me that something got you serious, so what was it?"

The Yamanaka was watching Naruto sleep on his bed and then looked to Minato and Kushina saying, "I was able to infiltrate Naruto's mind with extreme ease, what he was telling was the truth down to the last detail." Minato, Kushina, and Menma breathed out a sigh of relief.

Inoichi continued, "But, Naruto's mind has a two year gap missing inside his mind." Everyone looked a little shocked at the news, "What I mean to say is that Naruto knows he's ten because parts of his mind reminds him when Hidan told him he was born therefore he knows how old he is by knowing what year it is, but from when he was eight till about a month ago there is nothing. It's as if someone purposely erased two years of his memories."

Minato was now worried and he asked him, "What was the last thing he saw before the two years of lost memories?"

Inoichi simply told him, "Naruto remembers training in the mountains to learn his wind element, but after that it seems like he blacks out and then wakes up to see Hidan telling Naruto that he had to leave. They go to the Land of Demons and then his mind blacks out again and he wakes up alone in the woods two years later. There are also patches in those two years of his training and other less than helpful memories, but I don't see Hidan in them." Kushina looked through the mirror and watches her son sleep, but manages to ask, "What does it mean? Did Hidan erase those two years and why during that time?"

Inoichi answered it, "Let me rephrase what I said, the two year gap was missing from his mind, but it's locked away deeper inside his mind."

Menma was confused and asked, "Then why didn't you look there?" Inoichi looked depressed at this point and he looked to Minato saying, "Naruto's memories of those two years are locked inside his head, if I unlock it then we have the two year gap."

The blonde kage brought his hand to his face covering saying, "But there is a problem isn't there?"

Inoichi knew the Hokage caught on once he said that, "Yes Hokage-sama there is a 'but', you see whoever locked his memories away placed three safety precautions to keep his memories locked away."

Inoichi pointed to one part on his head, "Whoever it was placed one of three trigger traps to go off in Naruto's mind. The one located here is attached to his 'short term' memory. If I unlock the two year memory lock then this one will affect Naruto's ability to convert short term memory into long term memory, meaning that his mind will reset every single day and he won't know anyone afterwards."

He moved his finger to another spot on his brain, "The second is here where if I unlock the the seal inside his mind and this one goes off then it will wipe Naruto's mind completely clean and the resulting shock of missing memories will turn him into a vegetable and we will lose all of his memories including the two year gap."

Everyone was practically sick to their stomachs that someone would do this. Inoichi got their attention again when he moved his finger to the base where his spine and brain meet, "The final one is here, the last place and the most devastating in my opinion. The third and final is located where his motor functions are, if I activate the lock seal, then this one goes off, we will have complete access to Naruto's memories, but Naruto will lose all motor functions in his body from the neck down and it will also leave him brain dead."

Minato looked to his wife and he could hear the sobs coming from her, he then kneeled down and held her asking Inoichi, "Can you remove the traps?"

Inoichi shook his head, "No. Whoever did this set the traps that if one is tampered with then it will activate the two other traps. An example would be if I went for the one that wipes his mind clean, if I try and disarm it then it will trigger the one at the base of his mind and the other where his short term memory is located. This will happen if I try and disarm the other ones as well, so no matter what I do I can't mess with that lock or the traps without doing extreme harm to his mind and body. The one who did this wanted to be sure that those two years are locked away and are possibly only accessible to the one who set it up. Regardless if we want those memories then it will cost Naruto's life as a ninja."

Menma told Inoichi, "Then I guess we leave it at that." Minato had already agreed to that and he told Inoichi, "We won't do a damn thing. Naruto doesn't deserve the consequences of this."

Kushina asked with hope, "Inoichi-san, is there anyway that two or three more Yamanaka's can help you disable all the traps and the lock?" Inoichi had already thought about it and said, "No, my other clansmen can enter minds, but some are inexperienced at disabling traps since there are few ninjas that can set them up effectively inside someone's mind and we'd need to do it simultaneously. The chances of this working is a one out of five chance of success and I highly recommend that with those odds and the consequences behind it that you do not take it."

Minato told Ibiki and Inoichi, "Thank you both for all your help. Ibiki can you bring Naruto to us, we're taking him home." Ibiki did as he was told and he left the room to go fetch Naruto. Inoichi looked back at the Hokage asking, "Ibiki told me that you were doing a test on his blood, did the results come back yet?"

Minato smiled and told him, "Yeah, the results were sent to my office. Since Kushina is a blood donor at the hospital they took some of her blood as well and it came back that Naruto is without a doubt our son."

Inoichi smiled and told them congratulations. Ibiki returned a short while later carrying Naruto, Kushina immediately walked over to Ibiki and took Naruto from him carrying him. Ibiki remembering about the necklace that the boy had been hesitant to be separated from, dug around in his left pocket and pulled it out. "And here don't forget about this" Ibiki said to Kushina, handing her the strange item. She studied the item in her hand for a moment. It was silver in color, and the design was a circle with a upside down triangle. "What's this?" Kushina asked curiously. Ibiki shrugged "It is some sort of religious symbol Kushina-sama, he seems very attached to it." She smiled up at the scared man, "I'll have to ask him about it some time then." Minato and Menma smiled and they bid goodbye to Ibiki and Inoichi and they left heading to get Haru from the Hyuuga compound and to head back home.

* Hokage Mansion *

Menma went to get Haru and had made it back home after his parents. Haru ran through the house to find Naruto, she ran into the living room and saw her mother sitting on the couch still holding Naruto smiling. The little blonde girl walked over to her mother, and Kushina held her hand out for her daughter to join. Haru climbed on the couch and laid down as well.

Menma told his mother, "Inoichi said that Naruto-kun might be out for a few hours since this was his first time his mind was under that much stress, so he'll sleep good tonight." Minato came back in the room wearing just his blue ninja jumpsuit looking at how happy his lover was to have her child back. Both Menma and Minato took a seat on the couches in the living room to relax.

Menma however asked his dad, "What will we tell the village and the council?" Minato explained how this would happen, "I called for a meeting to be scheduled for tomorrow and I will tell them then. Naruto will be enrolled in the academy, but first I want me and you to test out his abilities to see how far along he is."

Haru overheard the conversation and asked in a kind of tired voice, "So Naruto-nii will be going to the academy with me?" Haru was smiling and was very happy to hear that her twin would be going with her to school from now on. Kushina kissed Haru on the top of her head saying, "Yes, Naru-kun will go to school with you." Minato even added, "I'll see if I can get Naruto in the same class as you if you want Haru-chan."

Haru immediately lit up, "I'd like that tou-san." The oldest child said, "I can get started on testing out Naruto's abilities after he rests and gets a good meal."

Haru asked her older brother, "What about me?" Menma walked over to Haru and patted the top of her head, "Of course I need your help as well." Kushina looked to her husband asking him, "You're not going back to the office?"

He shook his head, "No I plan on staying home the rest of the day." Kushina looked at Naruto and then back to her husband saying, "Take him. He is your son after all." Minato got up from the couch he was sitting on and walked over to his wife gently picking Naruto up and said, "He's a little heavy, I'll take him to the hospital tomorrow so we can get him registered there."

Kushina nodded and Minato turned and took Naruto to his room. Minato opened the room to Naruto's room and laid him down in his bed to let him sleep, he didn't leave right away he stood at his son's bedside happy that he was able to see him. Though the thought of him living a life like that wasn't one that made him happy. He rubbed his son's hair then left to let him sleep.

Naruto laid peacefully on his bed, but something started happening. Underneath Naruto's covers the right side of his body began to move in an irregular fashion from under his skin, suddenly a face was forming around his shoulder, the face was completely visible, "My, my that was an ordeal. I can't believe that I wasn't detected, then again this boy's chakra levels hid me completely."

The face moved more off of Naruto becoming a second body, but this body only had a left half of a face and a left arm and was pitch white, it was Zetsu's white half, "Time to report in." Zetsu opened his mouth and coming out of his mouth was another white Zetsu half that was only a left half of a head and torso. Zetsu told the creature, "Go report now." The second Zetsu opened the window of Naruto's room and fell to the ground, but once it touched the dirt it sunk into it disappearing entirely. The half that was attached to Naruto sunk back into his skin leaving the illusion that Naruto was okay.

X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X

* Akatsuki Hideout *

Zetsu was standing inside a hideout with both halves of it's body visible, he looked to his left and saw a white half of himself emerge out of the ground. Zetsu walked over to it and he grabbed it by it's throat and started to eat it, once Zetsu devoured it he said, "Infiltration was a success in Konoha it seems." He walked off deeper into the base and he came across Hidan who was reading out of an old black book. Zetsu cleared his throat to get Hidan's attention. Hidan took a glance away and saw that it was Zetsu, "Well how'd the little shit do, did Sasori's seals hold up?"

Zetsu smiled, "They don't even know about the clone I have inside of Naruto's body and it would seem that I was able to keep my DNA out of his blood stream so more good news. Things are going smoothly, they interrogated him and he passed, but they still think something is amiss. They'd never suspect that someone else is living with Naruto."  
Hidan told his comrade, "Don't worry, like most villages their defenses of one person lessens over time. Even that old fucker Danzo turns a little blind eye after a while. Just be careful Zetsu that your clones are not discovered because if they are then this whole plan goes to shit."

Zetsu keeping his smile replied "No worries, my clone will get it done. Not even the Hokage has noticed me. But, Hidan if I might ask do you think that kid will really make it to three years?"

Hidan looked into the strange man's glowing yellow orbs, "Who really knows, I have full faith in the little shit. And leader-chan has shown to be smart and reputable. So, I don't have much to worry about as it goes thus far." Zetsu nodded in acknowledgement to the Jashinist words. He looked at his clone and said "Your job is done, you may return to Naruto." the clone immediately merged back into the ground, disappearing from sight. After that both men continued what they were doing before, having finished their business with one another.

However a certain mint haired girl had overheard her superiors talk. 'Naruto-kun will will accomplish this task like he does all the others. I needn't worry about him.' she thought to herself. There weren't many people Fū cared about in life. In fact it was only two. But, Naruto was one of the few people who understood what it was like living her life. And he'd proved to be a good comrade and...friend over the couple of years she'd known him. She just hoped that he came back successfully, and unharmed. Maybe if she was lucky he would even learn to drop that foul mouth of his. With that final thought she walked off to the training grounds.

X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X

* Konoha: Naruto's Room *

Naruto was still asleep in his room and Zetsu again sprouted from Naruto's shoulder, but it completely separated from him, he hung it's head out the window and saw the clone come out of the ground. Zetsu looked around and saw no ninjas were nearby nor did he hear anyone coming from the other side of Naruto's door, he then held his hand out and it extended.

The clone reached out and grabbed that hand merging with it, Zetsu retracted his arm and gained the memories from it.  
He went back to Naruto and merged back into his body saying, "Those fools didn't even take the time to really look underneath it all." After he completely bonded with Naruto he began moving around his DNA from Naruto's.

* A Few Hours Later *

Naruto slowly awoke and realized that he was no longer in the ANBU headquarters, the place was to bright and it looked like a child's room. He got out of the bed he was laying in and looked around, he walked over to the dresser and opened the drawer and found no clothes, he walked over to the toy chest next and found a few toys, Naruto never had toys and never played with any and he wasn't going to start now, Jashin as his witness. After looking around for a moment he walked to the door and opened it and noticed a plaque on the door that had his name on it.

Naruto looked back in the room and said to himself, "This is my room?" He walked out and closed the door and walked downstairs and wandered into the first room which was the kitchen and standing at the stove cooking was his mother.

Kushina was cooking some curry and rice for dinner, also in the kitchen was Minato who was sitting down at the table filling out some documents. Naruto made his presence known by clearing his throat catching both of his parent's attention. Kushina and Minato both noticed Naruto and he saw his father walk over to him asking, "Hey Naruto-kun. Sleep well?" Naruto nodded and asked, "Where are we?"

Minato answered, "We are in the Hokage mansion, our home." Naruto looked around the very large kitchen and was impressed, but he didn't show it. Kushina put the curry on to simmer for a moment and walked over to Naruto and asked him, "Naruto-kun what's your favorite foods?"

The little blonde thought about it and he said, "I like ramen, onigiri, and red bean soup." Kushina smiled at the fact that he liked ramen. Minato told Naruto, "Your siblings are in the kage training ground. Just go down that hall and it's the door with the sign above it." Naruto nodded and started walking away but suddenly remembered 'My pendant…' he looked back at his parents and said, "Do either of you know where my necklace is?". Minato looked to Kushina remembering that Ibiki had handed it her. Kushina smiled, "It's in the living room on top of the table." Naruto nodded at his mother, "Thanks Kaa-san." and walked into the living room that was connected to the dining room. He looked around and spotted his pendant where his mother had said it was. He picked it up and placed it around his neck. "It feels strange not having it on. Almost like I'm naked." he said to himself. Once more the boy headed towards the training grounds.

He saw the big two doors and pushed them open, he noticed that right when you enter your standing in a patio area for people to watch and he saw that the training ground was a huge area. He walked out of the patio area and he saw Haru being trained by Menma.  
Naruto watched with interest as Haru was utilizing a taijutsu he was not familiar with, but as expected Menma was dodging all of her attacks with ease. Every punch she threw he would slap her hand away and every kick she tossed at him was stopped when he would catch her foot mid swing and toss her away. The two didn't seem to notice him at that moment so he just remained silent and watched. Menma was reading a book while fighting off his sister with ease, even though his eyes were not looking at her.

Haru became a little more irked that she was being toyed with so easily. Haru pulled out a kunai and held it in her right hand, but she slammed her left hand on the ground and began to spin on it, despite spinning quickly she picked up a second kunai, however she grabbed it not with her hands but in between her toes and tossed it quickly at Menma.

Her eldest brother smirked and brought one hand up and he stuck his index finger through the loop of the kunai and remained reading his book. Haru spun off of her hand and launched herself in the air and tossed the kunai in her hand at her brother's book and again the blonde jounin caught that kunai through the loop with his middle finger this time.

He closed his book and said, "Okay we are done for today." Menma called out. Haru fell back on her butt and tried to take in some good breaths since they have been training for a few hours now. Menma put his book back in his pack and then looked over to the house and saw Naruto sitting on the edge of the patio quietly watching them.

Haru looked at the house to and saw Naruto and her face lit up asking, "Hey Naru-nii did you enjoy the show?" Naruto kept silent at first, but answered, "I was interested in that stance you took. Haven't seen anything like it before." Menma asked Naruto, "Would you like to have a go at me too?" Naruto shook his head, "Sorry, but no. I'm not at full strength right now, I'm still a little drowsy."

Haru got up from her seated position and ran over to Naruto asking him, "Do you know any cool jutsu?" Naruto examined the girl who is his sister and found many facial similarities between them except for the whisker marks on her cheeks, and that she had golden blonde hair like their father. Naruto drifted his eyes from side to side and said, "I know enough, but I don't really know any useful genjutsu. The only one I am familiar with isn't very good for any sort of combat with another ninja." Menma and Haru smiled and the little blonde girl told him, "Nothing to worry about. Dad knows some genjutsu, but mom, Menma-aniki, and myself doesn't know a single one." Menma rubbed the back of his head saying, "Trust us Naruto-kun it's a learning disability for us."

'Yes, that reminds me, my mother may hold some jutsu and knowledge of the Uzumaki. I should talk to her about it when I get a chance.' putting that thought to the side Naruto asked them, "Is there a library here?" Menma walked closer to Naruto asking, "You like to read?" Naruto only nodded. Menma told him, "Yeah come on let's go." Menma and Haru took their sandals off and placed them off to the side and walked onto the patio and Naruto followed them. Naruto followed a bit close behind them thinking, 'Why do they accept me so easily? Even though I'm their missing family member they accepted me with smiles, sadness, friendship, and…. a warm hug….'

Naruto stopped at that moment and tried to make sense of it all. He had been in this village for a day and already a flood of new feelings came over him, however some of them felt a little familiar but he couldn't quite think of where they came from. Whatever the case he swore that they wouldn't get in the way of all his training. He hoped there was some books about these foreign emotions in the Hokage's library.

 **Well my guys sorry for taking so long with this chapter. Kinda got busy with all the tests and such that come before summer break. Any way I hope you enjoyed our favourite little** **blonde** **Redheads journey home. Some cool shit is ahead so get yourself ready for all that action. Until next time!**


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